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HEAVEN UNVEILED 



EMBRACING 



THEIR EMPLOYMENT AND SOURCES OF HAPPINESS 
IN THE CHRISTIAN'S FUTURE HOME. 



TESTIMONY OF THE BIBLE, AND THE VIEWS AND 

CONVICTIONS OF NEARLY FORTY EMINENT 

DIVINES, POETS. AND PHILOSOPHERS 

OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 



\ 



A 



BY 

M. ROLAND MARKHAM, 

AUTHOR OP "LOVE DIVINE," ETC. 



SYRACUSE, N. Y. : 
W. A. BURNHAM, PUBLISHER. 

1870. 
O 



£>T c: 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 

W. A. BURNHAM, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD, 

HARTFORD, CONN. 



TO THE HEADER 



11 Is heaven a name, or a reality ? 

A sinless world, or but a state of rest ? 
An Eden that the saints shall one day see, 
Or but a pleasant dreaming of the blest?" 

How many homes have been broken up ; how many- 
happy unions severed ; how many hopes crushed ; how 
many prospects blighted, and how many families 
stricken by the hand of death ! In many circles bereave- 
ments have been of so frequent occurrence, that already 
more than half the number that once surrounded the 
old hearthstone have passed away. Sorrowing friends 
followed them down to the waters of Jordan, but could 
accompany them no farther. They have disappeared 
in the darkness of death. 

Shall we recognize our friends in the world to come ? 
is a question of great interest to all, especially to those 
who are to-day mourning their " beloved dead," and 
who are journeying with hope towards the " better 
land." Our affection does not cease when the grave 
closes over those we love, but reaches far beyond it ; 
and how often in our imaginations we follow our 
friends to the " City of our God," and walk with them 
over the fields of bliss ! 

" All arrayed in spotless white, 

Brighter than the noon-day sun ; 
Foremost of the sons of light, 
And nearest th 1 eternal throne. 1 ' 



TO THE READER. 

The cold philosopher and the caviller tell us that in 
the world to come we shall have lost our identity, and 
consequently all earthly affection, and that we sh^ 1 
meet as strangers — as the poet has it : 

" Some tell us that earthly love must die, 
Nor enter the heavenly land ; 
That friendship is lost above the sky, 
'Midst the happy and joyous band.'" 

The hopeful Christian tells us that love is stronger 
than death, and that we shall retain our identity and 
recognize each other in heaven. 

As bearing directly upon this great subject, so 
fraught with interest to all, we have introduced in full 
the views, feelings, and testimony of nearly forty of 
the most eminent poets, philosophers, and divines of 
ancient and modern times. Nor have we failed to 
present the more conclusive and inspired testimony of 
the Bible, whose authority over all others is supreme. 

Our object in writing the poem has been to present 
not only the blessed truth of the reunion of saints and 
friends, but chiefly to set forth and describe — as only 
the divine art of Poesy can do — the peculiar beauties 
and attractions of heaven ; making it not merely a 
pleasant state of objectless existence, but a perfect 
world, possessing not only all that is desirable in this, 
but splendors, glories, beauties, and joys as much 
superior as the mind in its loftiest flights can imagine. 
Thus we may regard heaven as something tangible, 
worth living for, the attainment of which is an object 
of supreme desire. M. R. M. 






HEATED UNVEILED. 



$i I count the hope no day-dream of the mind, 

No vision fair of transitory hue, 

The souls of those whom once on earth we knew, 
And loved, and walked with in communion kind, 
Departed hence, a^ain in heaven to find. 

Such hope to nature's sympathies is true; 

And much, we deem, the Holy Word to view 
Unfolds — an antidote for grief designed, 

One drop from comfort's well. 'Tis thus we read 

The Book of Life ; but if we read amiss, 
By God prepared, fresh treasures shall succeed, 

To kinsmen, fellows, friends, a vast abyss 
Of joy ; nor aught the longing spirit need, 

To fill its measure of unminglcd bliss ! " — Mant. 



MARTIN LUTHER. 

The evening preceding the death of Luther, his friends 
being gathered around to witness his departure, and being 
anxious to know his mind respecting mutual recognition 
in the world to come, asked him the following question : 

" Whether in the future blessed and eternal assembly and 
church, we shall know each other ? " 

To which he replied — 

" How did Adam do ?" 

He had never in his life seen Eve. He lay and slept, 
yet when he awoke, he did not say, whence did you come ? 
who are you? But he said, "This is now bone of my 



6 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

bone, and flesh of my flesh." How did he know that this 
woman did not spring forth from a stone ? He knew it 
because he was full of the Holy Spirit, and in possession 
of the true knowledge of God. 

Into this knowledge and image we will, in the future 
life, again be renewed in Christ ; so that we Avill know 
father, mother, on sight, better than did Adam and Eve. 
Also previous to this, when he lost his daughter Magdalen, 
he said to his afflicted companion : 

"Dear Catharine, console thyself; think where our 
daughter is gone, for sure she has passed happily into 
peace. The fle.-h bleeds, doubtless, for such is its nature ; 
but the spirit lives, and goes to the place of its wishes. 
Children do not dispute; what we tell them, they believe. 
With them all is simplicity and truth. They die without 
pain or grief, without struggling, without temptations assail- 
ing them, without bodily suffering, just as though they were 
merely going to sleep." 

Then, as he looked upon her, he said : 

" Dear child, thou wilt rise again ; thou wilt shine like 
a star — ay, like the sun. * * I a m joyful in spirit, but 
O, how sad in the flesh ! 'Tis marvellous I should know 
she is certainly at rest, that she is well, and yet that I 
should be so sad." 

On the same subject he writes thus to Jonas : 

'• You will have heard of the new birth into the kingdom 
of Christ of my daughter Magdalen. Though my wife 
and I ought, in reality, to have no other feeding than one 
of profound gratitude for her happy escape fiom the power 
of the flesh, the world, the Turk, and the devil, yet the 
force of natural affection is so great, that we cannot sup- 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 1 

port our loss without constant weeping and bitter sorrow — 
a thorough death of the heart, so to speak. We have ever 
before us her features, her words, her gestures, her every 
action in life and on her death bed — my darling, my all- 
dutiful, all-obedient daughter ! Even the death of Christ 
— and what are all other deaths in comparison with that? 
— cannot tear her from my thoughts as it ought to do. * 
* * She was, as you well know, all gentleness, amia- 
bility and tenderness." 



She is not dead — the child of our affection — 

But none unto that school 
Where she no longer needs our poor protection, 

And Christ himself doth rule. 



In that great cloister's stillness and seclusion, 

By guardian angels led, 
Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution, 

She lives whom we call dead. 

Day after day we think what she is doing 

In those bright realrns of air ; 
Year after year her tender steps pursuing, 

Behold her grown more fair. 

Thus do we walk with her, and keep unbroken 

The bond which nature gives, 
Thinking that our remembrance, though unspoken, 

May reach her where she lives. 

Not as a child shall we again behold her ; 

For when, with raptures wild, 
In our embraces we again enfold her, 

She will not be a child. 

But a fair maiden in her Father's mansion, 

Clothed with celestial grace, 
And beautiful with all the soul's expansion, 

Shall we behold her face. 

— Ltongfdlow. 



8 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

I must confess, as the experience of my own soul, that 
the expectation of loving my friends in heaven, kindled 
my love to them on earth. If I thought I should never 
know them, and consequently never love them after this 
life is ended, I should in reason number them with tempo- 
ral things, and love them as such. But I now delight to 
converse with my pious friends, in a firm persuasion that 
I shall converse with them forever ; and I take comfort in 
those of them who are dead or absent, as believing I shall 
shortly meet with them in heaven, and love them wdth a 
heavenly love that shall there be perfected. His cotempo- 
rary and friend, John Eliot, for many months before he 
died, would often say that he was shortly going to heaven, 
and that he would carry a deal of good news with him. 
He said he would carry tidings to the old founders of New 
England, who were now in glory, that church-work was 
yet carried on among us ; that the number of our churches 
was continually increasing, and that the churches were still 
kept as big as they were, by the daily additions of those 
who shall be saved. — Baxter. 



That it should ever have been doubted whether the 
inhabitants of the spiritual world recognize each other in 
that abode, is but an example of the wide influence of 
unbelief, suggesting the strangest dimness wherever the 
Scripture had not spoken in the most explicit words, even 
though the obvious reason for which the words had not 
been spoken was, that to speak them was needless. Why 
should not the departed recognize and be recognized? 
How can their very nature and being be so utterly changed 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 9 

that they should be able to exist in the same world, to re- 
member, and to be a general assembly, a church, a society, 
without recognition ? If the future life is the sequel, and 
result, and retribution of the present, how can recognition 
fail ? Not a step can we proceed, not a conception can we 
form, not a statement of Divine revelation can we clearly 
embrace in our contemplations of the future life, without 
admitting or involving the necessity of mutual recognition, 
as well as mutual remembrance and affection. Were Moses 
and Elias unknown each to the other ? Did the martyrs be- 
low the altar utter the same cry, without knowing the history 
of their companions, each a stranger amongst strangers ? 
Was Abraham a stranger to Lazarus, or was Lazarus seen 
and known by the rich man only ? Could those who watch 
for souls render an account for them with joy or grief, and 
yet not know their doom ? Could Christian converts be 
the "glory and joy" of an apostle at the coming of the 
Lord, if he knew them not ? Could the patriarchs be seen 
in the kingdom of God by none but those who should be 
shut out? All proceeds on the supposition of just such 
knowledge there as here. Tt is probable, indeed, that the 
human soul must always clothe itself with form, even in the 
separate state ; and such a form would bear the same im- 
press which had been given to the mortal body. There is 
no extravagance in the wish of Dr. Randolph to know 
Cowper above from his picture here, or in the same thought 
as expressed in the verses of Southey on the portrait of 
Heber. — Burgess. 



10 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



It has been asked, shall we know each other in heaven ? 
Suppose you should not ; you may be assured of this, that 
nothing will be wanting to your happiness. But oh ! you 
say, how would the thought affect me now ! There is the 
babe that was torn from my bosom ; how lovely then, but 
a cherub now ! There is the friend, wiio was as my own 
soul, with whom I took sweet counsel, and went to the 
house of God in company. There is the minister — whose 
preaching turned my feet into the paths of peace — whose 
words were to me a well of life. There is the beloved 
mother, on whSse knees I first laid my little hands to pray, 
and whose lips first taught my tongue to pronounce the 
name of Jesus ! And are these removed from us forever ? 
Shall we recognize them no more ? Cease your anxieties. 
Can memory be annihilated ? Did not Peter, James and 
John know Moses and Elias? Does not the Saviour in- 
form us that the friends, benefactors have made of the 
mammon of unrighteousness, shall receive them into ever- 
lasting habitations ? Does not Paul tell the Thessalonians 
that they are his hope, and joy, and crown, at the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ? — Jay. 



It has been asked whether, in this blessed abode, the 
saints will know one another ? One should think that the 
question was unnecessary, as the answer naturally presents 
itself to every man's mind ; and it could only have occurred 
to some dreaming Theologian, who in his airy speculations, 
has soared far beyond the sphere of reason and common 
sense. Who can doubt whether the saints will knoAV one 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 11 

another? What reason can be given why they should not? 
Would it be any part of their perfection to have all their 
former ideas obliterated, and to meet as strangers in the 
other world ? Would it give us a more favorable notion 
of the assembly in heaven, to suppose it to consist of a 
multitude of unknown individuals, who never hold commu- 
nication with each other ; or by some inexplicable restraint 
are prevented, amidst an intimate intercourse, from mutual 
discoveries ? Or have they forgotten what they themselves 
were, so that they cannot reveal it to their associates? 
What would be gained by this ignorance, no man can tell ; 
but we can tell what would be lost by it. They would 
lose all the happiness of meeting again, on the peaceful 
shore, those from whom they were separated by the storms 
of life ; of seeing among the trophies of Divine grace, 
many of whom they had despaired, and for wdiose sakes 
they had gone down with sorrow to the grave ; of knowing 
the good which they have been honored to do, and being 
surrounded with the individuals who had been saved by 
means of their prayers, and instructions and labors. How 
could those whom he had been the instrument of convert' 
ing and building up in the holy faith, be to the minister o£ 
the Gospel a crown of joy and rejoicing in the day of the 
Lord, if he did not recognize them when standing at his 
side ? The saints will be free from the turbulence of pas- 
sion, but innocent affections will remain; and could they 
spend eternal ages without asking, Are our children here ? 
Are our still dearer relatives here ? Have our friends, 
with whom we took sweet counsel together, found their 
way to this country, to which we traveled in company till 
death parted i;s. — Dick. 



12 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

How shall I know thee, in the sphere that keeps 
The disembodied spirits of the dead — 

Where all of thee that time could wither, sleeps 
And perishes among the dust we tread ! 

For I shall feel the stktg of ceaseless pain, 
If there I meet thy gentle presence not, 

Nor hear the voice I love, nor read again 
In thv serenest eves the tender thought. 



Will not thy own meek heart demand me there ; 

That heart, whose fondest throbs to me were given ? 
My name, on earth, was ever in thy prayer ; 

Shall it be banished from thy tongue in heaven 3 

In meadows fanned by heaven's life-breathing wind, 
In the resplendence of that glorious sphere, 

And larger movements of th' unfettered mind, 
Wilt thou forget the love that joined us here ? 

The love that lived through all the stormy past, 
And meekly with my harsher nature bore, 

And deeper grew, and tenderer to the last — 
Shall it expire with life, and be no more ? 

— William Cullen Bryant. 



If we hear him [Paul] here, we shall certainly see him 
hereafter ; if not as standing near him, yet see him we 
certainly shall, glistening near the throne of the King. 
Where the cherubim sing the glory, where the seraphim 
are flying, there shall we see Paul with Peter, both as a 
chief and leader of the choir of the saints, and shall enjoy 
his generous love. — Chrysostom. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 13 

The clay which we commit to the grave under that uni- 
versal sentence, " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
return," will be quickened again, and resume, even after 
the slumber of ages, the organization, the lineaments, the 
expression of that self- same human being with whom we 
were conversant upon earth: otherwise it were anew crea- 
tion, and not a resurrection ; and it will be re-animated by 
that self-same spirit which forsook it at death : otherwise it 
were a different being altogether, and not the one with 
whom, under that form, we held sweet communion in this 
life, and walked to the house of God in company. It has, 
indeed, been questioned whether Christian friends shall 
know each other in the world of the risen. But why not? 
Did not the disciples know the Lord Jesus after his resur- 
rection ? Did they not know him at the moment of his 
ascension ? Shall the body which he wore upon the earth, 
be the only one recognized in heaven ? If Peter and Paul, 
if James and John, shall not be able to distinguish each 
other, upon what principle shall they be able to distinguish 
their Lord ? And why should the body be raised at all, if 
the associations with which its re-appearance is connected, 
are broken and lost ? — Mason. 



For my own part, I feel myself transported with the most 
ardent impatience to join the society of my two departed 
friends, your illustrious fathers, whose characters I greatly 
respected, and whose persons I sincerely loved. Nor is 
this my earnest desire confined to these excellent persons 
alone, with whom I was formerly connected. I ardently 
2 



14 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

wish to visit also those celebrated worthies, of whose hon- 
orable conduct I have heard and read much, or whose 
virtues I have myself commemorated in some of my 
writings. To this glorious assembly I am speedily ad- 
vancing, and I would not be turned back on my journey, 
even on the assured condition that my youth, like that of 
Pelias, should be again restored. 0, glorious day, when 
I shall retire from this low and sordid scene, to assemble 
with the divine congregation of departed spirits ; and not 
with those only whom I have just now mentioned, but with 
my dear Cato, that best of sons and most valuable of men. 
It was my sad fate to lay his body on the funeral pile, 
when, by the course of nature, I had reason to hope he 
would have performed the same last office to mine. His 
soul, however, did not desert me, but still looked back on 
me in its flight to those happy mansions to which he was 
assured I should one day follow him. If I seemed to bear 
his death with fortitude, it was by no means that I did not 
most sensibly feel the loss I had maintained : it was because 
I supported myself with the consoling reflection that we 
could not long be separated. — Cicero. 



If the common expression be true, that death conveys 
us to those regions which are inhabited by the spirits of 
departed men, will it not be unspeakably happy to escape 
from the hands of merely nominal judges, and appear before 
those who truly deserve the name — such as Minos and 
Khodamanthus, and to associate with all who have main- 
tained the cause of truth and rectitude ? Is it possible for 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. V) 

you to look upon this as an unimportant journey? Is it 
nothing to converse with Orpheus, and Homer, and Iles- 
siod? Believe me, I would cheerfully suffer many deaths 
on condition of realizing such privilege. With what pleas- 
ure could I leave the world, to hold communion with Po- 
lamide, Ajax, and others who, like me, have had an unjust 
sentence pronounced upon them ! Then would I explain 
the wisdom of Ulysses, Syssipus and that illustrious chief 
who led on the army of the Greek against the city of Troy. 
Nor should I be condemned to death for indulging, as I 
have done here, in free inquiry. He then lifted the fatal 
hemlock to his lips, and drank the same with amazing tran- 
quillity, then laid himself down to die. — Socrates. 



Who, finding himself in a strange country, does not 
earnestly desire to return to his fatherland ? Who, 
about to sail in haste for his home, does not long for a 
friendly wind, that he may the sooner throw his arms 
around the beloved ones ? We believe Paradise to be our 
fatherland ; our parents are the patriarchs : why should we 
not haste and fly to see our home and greet our parents ? 
A great host of beloved friends awaits us there, a numerous 
and various crowd ; parents, children, brethren, who are 
secure in a blessed immortality, and only concerned for us, 
are looking with desire for our arrival. To see and em- 
brace these — what a mutual joy will this be to us and to 
them ! What bliss, without the fear of death, to live eter- 
nally in the heavenly kingdom ! How vast, and of eternal 
duration, is our celestial blessedness ! There is the glori- 



16 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

ous choir of the apostles ; there the host of joyful prophets ; 
there the innumerable company of the martyrs, crowned on 
account of their victories in the conflict of suffering;, there, 
in triumph, are the five virgins ; there the merciful, who 
have fed and blessed the poor, and, according to their Lord's 
direction, have exchanged earthly for heavenly treasures, 
now receive their glorious reward. To these, dearly be- 
loved brethren, let us hasten with strong desire, and ardently 
wish soon to be with them and with Christ. — Cyprian. 



If we are sorrowing under a misfortune — of which this 
world affords no alleviation, the death of those most dear to 
us — let us humbly offer to our God the beloved whom we 
have lost. And what, after all, have we lost ? — the remain- 
ing days of a being, whom we indeed loved, but whose hap- 
piness we do not consider in our regret; who, perhaps, was 
not happy here, but who certainly must be much happier 
with God; and whom we shall meet again, not in this 
lark and sorrowful scene, but in the bright regions of eter- 
nal day, and partake in the inexpressible happiness of 
eternity. 

He has placed the friends whom he has taken from us 
in safety, to restore them to us in eternity. He has de- 
prived us of them, that he may teach us to love them with 
a pure love, a love that we may enjoy in his presence for- 
ever ; he confers a greater blessing than we were capable 
of desiring. 

Very soon they who are separated will be re-united, and 
there will appear no trace of the separation. They who 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 17 

are about to set out upon a journey, ought not to feel them- 
selves far distant from those who have gone to the same 
country a few days before. Life is like a torrent ; the past 
is but a dream ; the present, while we are thinking of it, 
escapes us, and is precipitated into the same abyss that 
has swallowed up the past ; the future will not be of a differ- 
ent nature ; it will pass as rapidly. A few moments, and a 
few more, and all will be ended ; what has appeared long 
and tedious, will seem short when it is finished. — Fenelon. 



Can we not with David rejoicingly declare, " They can- 
not come to us, but we can go to them ?" Yes, we can 
go to them. " They are not lost, but gone before." There, 
in that world of light, and love and joy, they await our 
coming. There do they beckon us to ascend. There do 
they stand, ready to welcome us. There may we meet 
them, when a few more suns or seasons shall have cast 
their departing shadows upon our silent grave. Then shall 
our joy be full, and our sorrows ended, and all tears wiped 
from our eyes. 

Death separates, but it can never disunite those who are 
bound together in Christ Jesus. To them, death in his 
power of an endless separation, is abolished. It is no more 
death, but a sweet departure, a journey from earth to 
heaven. Our children are still ours. We are still their 
parents. We are yet one family — one in memory — one in 
hope — one in spirit. Our children are yet with us, and 
dwell with us in our sweetest, fondest recollections. We, 

2* 



18 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

too, are yet with them in the bright anticipations of our re= 
union with them in the glories of the upper sanctuary. — ■ 
Smith, 



If your friends live in the fear of God and depart in the 
Christian faith, they may be sure to come thither, where 
you shall be ; even unto the glorious kingdom of God, 
where you shall both see them, know them, talk with them, 
and be much more joyful with them than ever you w r ere in 
this world. 

Shall the knowledge of God's elect and chosen people be 
less in the kingdom of God than it is in this world ? We, 
being in this corruptible body, know one another, when we 
see not God but with the eye of faith ; and shall we not 
know one another after that we have put off this sinful 
body and see God face to face, in the sight of whom is the 
knowledge of all things ? We shall be like the glorious 
angels of heaven who know one another ; can it, then, come 
to pass that one of us may not know another ? Shall we 
be equal with the angels in other things, and inferior unto 
them in knowing one another ? We shall know and see 
Christ as he is, who is the wisdom, image and brightness 
of the heavenly Father ; and shall the knowledge of one 
another be hidden from us ? We are members all of one 
body, and shall we not know one another ? 

We shall know our Head, which is Christ, and shall we 
not know ourselves ? We shall be citizens of one heavenly 
city, where continual light shall be ; and shall we be over- 
whelmed with such darkness that we shall not see and 
know one another? They that in this world continue 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 19 

together in one place but for a season, know one another ; 
and shall we, who forever shall continue together, singing, 
praising and magnifying the Lord our God, not know one 
another ? They that are in one household, and serve one 
lord and master, know one another in this world ; and shall 
we not know one another, who, in the kingdom of heaven 
shall continually serve the Lord our God together, with 
one spirit and with one mind? There is a certain knowl- 
edge one of another here on the earth, even amongst the 
unreasonable and brute beasts ; and shall our senses be so 
darkened in the life to come that we, being immortal, incor- 
ruptible, and like unto the angels of God, yea, seeing God 
face to face, shall not know one another ? We shall know 
God as he is ; and shall we not know one another ? Adam, 
before he sinned, being in the state of innocence, knew Eve 
so soon as God brought her unto him, and called her by 
her name ; and shall not we, being in heaven, where we 
shall be in a much more blessed and perfect state than ever 
Adam was in paradise, know one another? Shall our 
knowledge be inferior to Adam's knowledge in paradise ? 

When Christ was transfigured on Mount Tabor, his dis- 
ciples, Peter, James and John, did not only know Christ, 
but also Moses and Elias, who talked there with Christ, 
whom, notwithstanding, they had never seen nor known in 
the flesh. Whereof we may learn, that when we come to 
behold the glorious majesty of the great God, we shall not 
only know our Saviour Christ, and such as we were ac- 
quainted with in this world, but also all the elect and 
chosen people of God, who have been from the beginning 
ol the world. As the holy apostle saitb, ye are come to 
Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly 



20 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and 
to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which 
are written in Heaven, and to God. the judge of all, and 
to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the 
mediator of the New Testament. When we are once come 
into that heavenly Jerusalem, we shall, without all doubt, 
both see and know all the holy and most blessed company 
of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs, with all 
others of the faithful. As we are all members of one body, 
whereof Jesus Christ is the head, so shall we know one 
another, rejoice together, and be glad with one another. — 
Bacon. 



If this [Col. 1 : 28] be rightly interpreted, then it affords 
the manifest and accessary inference, that the saints in a 
future life will meet and be known again to one another: 
for how. without knowing again his converts in their new 
and glorious state, could St. Paul desire or expect to pre- 
sent them at the last day? — Paley. 



I want to go to Heaven. It is an inexpressibly glorious 
place. The more I think of it. the more delightful it ap- 
pears, and I want to see who is there. I want to see 
brother Sanford, and brother Niles, and brother Spring, 
and Dr. Hopkins, and Dr. TTest. and a great many other 
ministers with whom I have "been associated in this world, 
but who have gone before me. I believe I shall meet them 
in heaven ; and it seems to me our meeting there must be 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 21 

peculiarly interesting. I want to see, too, the old prophets 
and the apostles. What a society there will be in Heaven ! 
There we shall see such men as Moses, and Isaiah, and 
Elijah, and David, and Paul. I want to see Paul more 
than any man I can think of. — Emmons. 



When Calvin was near his end, Farel, his early and 
faithful friend, and now a venerable sage of eighty years, 
desired once more to see him in the flesh. Calvin dis- 
suaded him — though he did, nevertheless, afterwards come 
from Neufchatel to Genoa on foot, to see his friend once 
more and for the last time. In his letter to Farel, in which 
he takes his final leave from him, as he then supposed, he 
says: 

God bless you, best and noblest brother ; and if God 
permits you still longer to live, forget not the tie that binds 
us, which will be just as agreeable to us in Heaven as it 
has been useful to the church on earth. — Calvin. 



When we come to Heaven we shall meet with all those 
excellent persons, those brave minds, those innocent and 
charitable souls, whom we have seen, and heard, and read 
of in the world. There we shall meet many of our dear 
relations and intimate friends, and perhaps with many of 
our enemies, to whom we shall then be perfectly reconciled, 
notwithstanding all the warm contests and peevish differ- 
ences which we had with them in this world, even about 



22 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

matters of religion ; for Heaven is a state of perfect love 
and friendship. 



It is yet but a little while, and we shall be delivered 
from the burden and the conflict, and, with all those who 
have preceded us in the righteous struggle, enjoy the deep 
rapture of a Mediator's presence. Then, re-united to the 
friends with whom we took sweet counsel upon earth, we 
shall recount our toil only to heighten our ecstacy ; and 
call to mind the tug and the din of war, only that, with a 
more bounding throb and a richer song, we may feel and 
celebrate the wonders of redemption. — MelvilL 



Go where we will, we find the sentiment that friendship 
is perpetuated beyond the grave. It is enshrined in the 
heart of our common Christianity. The pure, unsophisti- 
cated belief of the vast majority of the followers of Christ, 
is in union with the yearnings of natural affection, which 
follows its object through the portals of the grave into the 
eternal world. What but this causes the Christian parent, 
in the dying hour, to charge his beloved children to pre- 
pare for a re-union before the throne of the Lamb ? He 
desires to meet them there, and to rejoice with them in the 
victory over sin and death. The widow, bending in bitter 
bereavement over the grave of him whom God has taken, 
meekly puts the cup of sorrow to her lips, with the assured 
confidence that the separation wrought by death is tran- 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 23 

sient, and that they who sleep in Jesus shall together in- 
herit the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Thus 
the wormwood and the gall are tempered by the sweet 
balm of hope, and heaven wins the attraction which earth 
has lost. 

Tell me, ye who have seen the open tomb receive into 
its bosom the sacred trust committed to its keeping in hope 
of the first resurrection ; you who have heard the sullen 
rumbling of the death-clods, as they dropped upon the coffin 
lid, and told you that earth had gone back to earth ; when 
the separation from the object of your love was realized in 
all the desolation of bereavement, next to the thought that 
ere long you should see Christ as he is, and be like him, 
was not that consolation strongest which assured you that the 
departed one whom God had put from you into darkness, 
would run to meet you when you crossed the threshold of 
mortality, and with the holy rapture to which the redeemed 
alone can give utterance, lead you to the exalted Saviour, 
and with you bow at his feet, and cast the conqueror's crown 
before him. — Berg. 



There is no difficulty in believing that, on the part of 
saints in Heaven, an acquaintance with us is kept up. We 
have lost them for a time, but they have not lost us. As 
they have gone higher, they have capacities and privileges 
which we, who are still beneath them, have not; and this 
may extend to a constant oversight and interest in us. This 
sense is as natural as any other to the passage, " Then 
shall I know even as I also am known." We are now 



24 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

known to them ; but when we enter the state in which they 
now are, then shall we know them as they now know us. 

The Old Testament saints are represented as a crowd of 
witnesses around us, like the crowd which bent down from 
all sides upon the race-ground in the Olympic games. Ac- 
cording to this allusion of the apostle, they are around us, 
not merely as examples, but as interested spectators. That 
we are not conscious of this, does not prove its improba- 
bility ; for the lower orders of nature that are beneath us 
are not aware of our perfect knowledge of them, neither do 
they know us ; and yet we know them, their nature, habits, 
prospects and destiny. In like manner we have reason, and 
also intimations of Scripture, to confirm in us the belief that 
our sainted friends are bending an interested eye of love 
over us in all our earthly pilgrimage ; that they keep up a 
tender and affectionate acquaintance with us, and stand 
ready, when we fail on earth, to receive us into the arms of 
holy and eternal love, at the very gates of the heavenly 
paradise. Or must we believe that they are less interested 
in us than the rich man in hell was for his five brethren ? 

Even if saints do not and cannot behold and follow us 
with personal attention, they can still keep up an acquaint- 
ance with us in our earthly history, through the angels. 
Angels are the constant companions of the blest in heaven, 
and they are also upon the earth, " ministering spirits, sent 
forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." 
In heaven they " do always behold the face" of our Father ; 
and on earth they " encamp around our dwellings," and 
attend us to " keep us in all our ways." As on Jacob's 
mystic ladder, they are constantly descending from heaven 
to earth, and ascending from earth to heaven ; thus keeping 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 25 

alive the fellowship of love on both sides of the mysterious 
veil ! 

Can we for a moment believe that, if the saints above 
are still interested in us, there are no inquiries of returning 
angels in regard to us, and that our sainted friends do not 
thus keep themselves informed as to our state and lift; ? It 
is not only said that angels themselves are interested in 
the saints on earth, but that " there is joy in the presence of 
the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteih." Who 
are these that rejoice in the presence of the angels, over a 
converted sinner ? Are they not the sainted friends of the 
sinner ; they who, while on earth, often prayed for his con- 
version, and in remembrance of whose faith, and in answer 
to whose prayers, God has sent forth to him his converting 
grace? 

Our relation with the spirit-world, and our participa- 
tion in its sympathies, is most intimate and endearing ; 
it is only the benumbing influence of dull sense that 
keeps us from feeling it. The very reverence which we 
feel towards the unseen spirits of the dead, proclaims 
the power of their influence over us. Though this feel- 
ing is dark and unintelligible to us, it is not so to them. 
We live in the midst and under the constant power of 
mysterious unseen influences, which strongly declare 
the fa^t that we are in a sphere of existence influenced 
by a higher world, and under the attention of higher in- 
telligences, who are ever drawing us to them-elves ; 
and, soon as the separation of soul and body — the nat- 
ural and finite from the spiritual and infinite — shall take 
place in death, we shall discover at once how awfully 
3 



26 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

and sweetly near we have always been to the dead, and 
how much we shared in their affectionate sympathies. 

It is only when the infant becomes a man, that it fully 
sees and knows what the mother's eyes, arms and bo- 
som were to it during its years of infantile helplessness. 
So when our spirits once break through the thin veil of 
this imperfect, earthly life which hides the world of spir- 
its, into the full stature of celestial manhood, they will 
only fully understand those influences, the good of which 
they have always felt. 

If such is the relation, and such the mutual sympa- 
thies between heaven and earth, it is in the highest de- 
gree reasonable that the holy ties of earthly affection 
pass unbroken through the change of death, and revive 
with new strength and beauty in the upper kingdom of 
love. 

We take great pleasure in the conclusions to which 
these relations bring us. We delight greatly in the 
hope that the ties which bind us to our sainted friends 
are not broken in death ; that while we are loving them 
still, they love us too ; and while we long to find them 
again, they are watching with holy interest over us, and 
are alluring us, by sweet, mysterious influences, into 
their holy society, and into a participation, with them, 
of celestial joys. Seeing we are compassed about with 
so great a cloud of witnesses, we are animated to lay 
aside every weight — even to that of the body itself in 
death — that we may fly to their embraces, and be near 
them, as they are near the Lord. — Harbough. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 27 

Again has Autumn scattered over these precious 
mounds of earth her faded, leafy mantle. Lightly it 
rests upon their unobtrusive elevations, beneath which 
sleep some of earth's richest treasures. 

And are these perishing mementoes all that remain of 
their deeply cherished worth ? No ! The halo of glory 
with which their virtues have encircled their memory, 
shall never fade away. Our heavenly Guide Book 
teaches us that "the memory of the just is blessed." 

Then be still, my aching heart, and thankfully follow 
life's beaten path until we are permitted to meet again 
— to meet where their beautiful spirits are bathing in 
immortal love and immortal knowledge. They have 
passed through the "chances and changes" of this mor- 
tal life, and plumed their wings for an everlasting flight, 
where they can calmly review life's stormy sea, and con- 
template their future blessedness in their eternal home. 
They sought the path that leads up to the city of God, 
and thus entered into joy and felicity, into an eternity 
vast and shoreless. They have entered the swelling 
stream of bliss, which is mysterious and fathomless. 

Far beyond the troubled waters of time their ever-in- 
creasing capacity for enjoyment will perpetually rise, 
and fill to the brim their cup of felicity. 

Imagination here droops her wearied pinions, yet still 
continues to wander in search of those beloved spirits 
which have soared to the invisible world, unwilling to 
break the chain that binds it to those so dearly loved, 
so fondly cherished. And although the wounded heart 
has passed through the hour when it bled at every rup- 
tured tie ; when cares and heavy woes pressed long upon 
its very existence until nought was left but meek sub- 



28 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

mission ; the belief that it again will meet and recog- 
nize, in a higher and holier state of existence, those so 
dearly loved upon the earth, buoys up the hear:, 
bids it look forward to its initiation into the celestial 
world, where the long-incarcerated soul shall be free, 
and independent of the feeble inlets of knowledge 
the senses. "When the veil of mortality -hall be riven, 
the stormy Jordan passed, and the world of abiding re- 
alities entered, — then the world 01 deceptive and 
ing shadows will have forever passed away. 

Sweet is it to hold converse with the pious dead. A 
holy influence emanates from their blissful home, and 
fills the soul with a feeling of sacred and solemn awe. 
The spirit whispers peace, and tills the waiting caverns 
of the soul with the bright hope of again meeting those 
whom we believe to be in the abodes of redeemed and 
happy spirits. In vivid expectancy it awaits the morn- 
ing of the resurrection, and the happy reunion of kindred 
souls, where no tear of grief bedew- the cheek, no agon- 
izing farewell rends the heart : where a purer and holier 
love will lull the bosom than earth has ever known ; 
where dwell our kindred with the wise and good of un- 
told ages ; where the •■open ear of the soul'" will obtain 
knowledge from patriarchs and angels : w here our im- 
mortal spirits shall go free, and. wafted by angels' wings. 
survev the boundless ocean of eternitv. — Norton* 



! 

Of that country s bright and so fail*, 
And oft are it- 
But what rnu 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 29 



We speak of its pathways of gold, 

And its walls decked with jewels most rare, 

Of its wonders and pleasures untold ; 
But what must it be to be there ! 

We speak of its freedom from sin, 
From sorrow, temptation, and care, 

From trials without and within ; 
But what must it be to be there ! 

We speak of its service of love, 

Of the robes which the glorified wear, 

Of the church of the first-born above ; 
But what must it be to be there ' 

Then let us, 'midst pleasure and woe, 
Still for heaven our spirits prepare ; 

And shortly we also shall know 
And feel what it is to be there ! 



Anonymous. 



" Christian friends re-united in the realms above, shall 
meet one another with complete and lively consciousness 
of their reciprocal attachment upon earth ; and with such 
recollections of the incidents of their mortal intercourse, as 
shall enhance the blessedness of eternity. This is the sug- 
gestion of reason; this is the testimony of Scripture. 

" How mercifully vouchsafed, and how wisely calcula- 
ted, are these assurances from the Supreme Disposer of 
our lot, to console His true servants when they behold a 
beloved companion, also His true servant, declining under 
the pressure of sickness, or deposited in the grave ! The 
loss is no longer for eternity. The suspension of inter- 
course is but for the remainder of the life of the survivor. 
The individual removed is the forerunner of those who re- 
main. 

" He has reached the end of the journey a little sooner 



30 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

than his fellow-travellers, and is awaiting them at the place 
of repose, toward which they are every moment advancing. 
Let the bereaved mourner persevere in" his religious path, 
and the sweetest ties shall be rejoined. The restored con- 
nection shall be indissolvable. Misapprehensions, compe- 
tition, coolness, vicissitudes, doubt, fear, are no more. 

" The sun of affection shall no more be dimmed by 
earthly mists and exhalations. It shines forever with in- 
creasing lustre, pure as the new heavens in which it is en- 
throned. United feelings, associated pursuits, conjoined 
admirations of the work of God, participated delight in His 
dispensations, blend the renewed attachments into continu- 
ally augmented firmness. 

" The blessedness of our friend becomes the blessedness 
of the rest. The bliss of all is enlarging itself by reciproc- 
ity through never ending ages." — Gisborn. 



It is reasonable to believe that the saints shall know that 
they had such and such a relation to one another when 
they were on earth. The father shall know that such a 
one was his child ; The husband shall remember that such 
a one was his wife ; the spiritual guide shall know that 
such belonged to his flock ; and so all other relations of 
persons shall be renewed and known in heaven. The 
ground of which assertion is this, that the soul of man is of 
that nature that it depends not on the body and sense, and, 
therefore, being separated, knows all that it knew in the 
body. And for this reason it is not to be doubted that it 
arrives in the other world with the same designs and incli- 
nations it had here. So that the delights of conversation 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



31 



are continued in heaven. Friends and relations are famil- 
iar and free with one another, and call to mind their former 
circumstances and concerns in the world, so far as they 
may be serviceable to advance their happiness. — Edwards. 



The saints on earth, when sweetly they converse, 

And the dear favors of kind heaven rehearse, 
Each feels the other's joys, both doubly sin rj 
The blessings which devoutly they compare. 
If saints such mutual joys feel here below, 
When they each other's heavenly foretastes know, 
What joys transport them at each other's sight, 
When they shall meet in empyreal height ! 
Friends, even in heaven, one happiness would miss, 
Should thev not know each other when in bliss. 



Bishop Ken. 



"I see no reason why those who have been dearest 
friends on earth, should not, when admitted to that happy 
state, continue to be so, with full knowledge and recollec- 
tions of their former friendship. If a man is still to con- 
tinue (as there is every reason to suppose,) a sociable be- 
ing, and capable of friendship, it seems contrary to all prob- 
ability, that he should cast off or forget his former friends 
who are partakers with him of the like exultation. Re will 
indeed be greatly changed from what he was on earth, and 
unfitted perhaps for friendship with such a being as one of 
us is now ; but his friend will have undergone (by suppo- 
sition) a corresponding change. 

" And as we have seen them who have been loving 
play-fellows in childhood grow up, if they grow up with 
good, and with like dispositions, into still closer friendship 



'VI HEAVEX UN VEILED. 

in riper years, so also it is probable that when this one 
state of childhood shall be perfected in the maturity of a 
better world, the like attachment will continue between 
those companions who have trod together the Christian 
path to glory, and have " taken sweet counsel together, and 
walked to the house of God as friends.'' A change to in- 
difference toward them who have fixed their hearts on the 
same objects with ourselves during this earthly pilgrimage, 
and have given and received mutual aid during their 
course, is a change as little. I trust, to be expected, as it is 
to be desired. It certainly is net such a change as the 
Scripture teaches to prepare for. And a belief that under 
such circumstances, our earthly attachments will remain, is 
as beneficial as it is reasonable. It is likely very greatly 
to influence our choice of friends, which surely is no small 
matter. A sincere Christian would not indeed be, at any 
rate, utterly careless whether these were sincere Christians 
also with whom he connected himself. But this case is 
likely to be much greater, if he hopes that, provided he 
shall have selected such as are treading the sure path, and 
if he shall have studied to promote their eternal welfare, he 
shall meet again, never to part more, those to whom his 
heart is most encased here below. The hope also of re- 
joining in a better state the friend whom he sees advanc- 
ing toward that state, is an additional spur to his own vir- 
tuous exertions. 

Every thing which can make heaven appear more de- 
sirable, is a help towards his progress in Christian excel- 
lence ; and as one of the greatest earthly enjoyments to 
the best and most exalted Christian is, to witness the hap- 
piness of a friend; so. one of the brightest of his hopes will 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 33 

be, that of exulting in the most perfect happiness of those 
most dear to him." — Whately. 



O, beauteous are the forms that stand 

Beyond death's dusky wave, 
And beckon to the spirit's land, 

Across the narrow grave ! 

No damp is on the freed one's brow, 

No dimness in his eye; 
The dews of heaven, refresh him now, 

The fount of light is nigh. 

The parent souls that o'er our bed 

Ofc poured the midnight prayer, 
Now wonder where their cares are fled, 

And calmly wait us there. 

The dearer still — the close intwined 

With bands of roseate hue ; 
We thought them fair; but now we find 

'Twas but their shade we knew. 

'Tis sweet, when o'er the earth unfurled 

Spring's verdant banners wave, 
To think how fair yon upper world, 

Which knows no wintry grave. 

'Tis sweet, when tempests earth deform, 

And whirlwinds sweep the sky, 
To know a haven from the storm 

When worlds themselves must die ; 

To know that they in safety rest, 

The tranquil barks of those 
Who, soaring on life's billowy crest, 

Attained to heaven's repose ; 

To know that brethren fondly wait 

Our mansion to prepare ; 
That death but opes that mansion's gate, 

And lo ! our souls arc there ! 

Anonymous* 



34 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



Who are they whose little feet, 

Pacing life's dark journey through, 

Now have reached that heavenly seat 
They have ever kept in view ? 

Each the welcome " Come" awaits, 
Conquerors over death and sin ; 

Lift your heads, ye golden gates, 
Let the little travellers in. 



Hark ! how the angels, as they fly, 
Sing through the regions of the sky, 
Bearing an infant in their arms, 
Securely freed from sin's alarms. 

' Welcome, dear babe, to Jesus' breast, 
Forever therein joy to rest : 
Welcome to Jesus' court above, 
To sing thy great Redeemer's love ! 

" We left the heavens, and flew to earth, 
To watch thee at thy mortal birth 
Obedient to thy Saviour's will, 
We staid to love and guard thee still. 

" We, thy protecting angels, came 
To see thee blessed in Jesus' name ; 
When the baptismal seal was given, 
To mark thee, child, an heir of heaven. 

" When the resistless call of death 
Bade thee resign thy infant breath, 
When parents wept, and thou didst smile, 
We were thy guardians all «the while. 

" Now, with the lightning's speed, we bear 
The child committed to our care ; 
With anthems such as angels sing, 
We fly to bear thee to our King." 

Thus sweetly borne, he flies to rest; 
We know 'tis well — nay, more, 'tis best. 
When we our pilgrim's path have trod, 
O, may we find him with our God ! 

Richmond. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 35 



I look to recognize again, through the beautiful mask of their 

perfection, 
The dear familiar faces I have somewhile loved on earth; 
I long to talk with grateful tongue of storms and perils past, 
And praise the mighty Pilot that hath steered us through the 
rapids. 

M. F. Tupper. 



" Shall we know our friends and others in Heaven ? 
The intimations of God's word all favor it, and these inti- 
mations accord with the irrepressible demands of the hu- 
man soul. It was doubtless in part to encourage this hope 
that Moses and Elias appeared to the disciples, and talked 
with them on the Mount of glory. And if those who nev- 
er met on earth are to recognize one another in heaven, 
shall not personal friends much more ? Most evidently 
was it the Apostle's expectation to recognize his Corinthian, 
Colossian, and Thessalonian friends ; and has he been dis- 
appointed? And will not others, yea, all the sanctified in- 
timacies of earth be perpetuated in the everlasting home of 
the redeemed ? Every place of holy fellowship and prayer 
answers yes. Every inner recess of the heart answers yes. 
Blessed gathering ! Blessed greetings ! Joyful indeed 
will be the mutual recognition of earthly friends who are 
one in Christ. Joyful indeed will be the meeting of those 
who have taken sweet counsel together, — -who have devout- 
ly prayed and sung together, — -who have been companions 
in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus 
Christ. But unspeakable must be the joy of those who 
there behold in each other the instruments of their own 
conversion, or the results of their labors for the salvation of 
others, and jointly give all glory to a present God. And 0, 



36 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

wnat neart will then be large enough for the rapture of a 
successful ambassador of Christ ! — of one like Paul meet- 
ing the multitudes saved through his instrumentality ? 
Signal indeed must be the grave that shall prevent such a 
soul from being completely overwhelmed in the transport 
of that hour. To find that his ministrations were owned 
beyond his thoughts ; that many, by his preaching, were 
turned to righteousness; that a prayer for some apparently 
hopeless sinner was answered ; to find youthful professors 
edified, and aged saints comforted ; that churches were re- 
freshed, it may be, by his presence ; that directly or indi- 
rectly, foreign evangelization was accelerated by him: and 
all, only because sovereign grace called, enabled and per- 
suaded him to the same. O, it requires other than human 
pens to describe the emotions of such men in glory ! 

But what friend in heaven do we most desire to see ? 
No one can enter there whose heart looks not first of all at 
Him who is seated on the great white throne. What are 
our ideas of the city of God ? Is not Christ the light 
thereof? Is not the glory which he had before the world 
was, to be there displayed ? Did the Eternal Son take a 
human form? — in it agonize in G-ethsemane, be scourged 
in the judgment hall, crucified on Golgotha, sleep in the 
sepulchre, and rise to heaven, — and shall any other hu- 
man form divert the eye from that ? Are these the scars 
that speak of precious blood once shed for you ? Are those 
the lips that cried '' It is finished?" And will we soon 
withdraw our gaze ? No, much as we love all other 
friends, there is one in the kingdom of heaven who will 
make us temporarily forget them all. For years — if there 
be years then — aye, for centuries, it may be 5 will the Lamb 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 37 

of God absorb our souls. When we reach the city of God 
we shall not, first of all, grasp the hands of present ac- 
quaintances. Of such an affront to the proprieties of heav- 
en, no one, presented at the court of the King of kings, is 
ever guilty. Bowing down in such gratitude as we never 
knew before, gazing in a holy ecstasy of love, breaking 
forth into high and ceaseless praises, there shall we stand 
age after age. Not, it may be, till the world has been 
burnt up, — not till the elect have all been ga h red hjme to 
their Father's house, shall we think of looking away 
from that brightness of the Father's glory, our Saviour 
our dear Redeemer. Eternity will be long enough for all 
the sanctified attachments of earth to have full scope. But 
the first song — the everlasting song will be, "Now unto 
him that loved us, and hath washed us from our sins in 
his own blood, and hath made us kingn and priests unto 
God and his Father, to him be glory forever." — Thompson. 



There is a reaper whose name is Death, 

And, with his sickle keen, 
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath. 

And the flowers that grow between. 

" Shall I have nought that is fair ? " saith he ; 

" Have nought hut the bearded grain ? 
Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me, 

I will give them all back again. " 

He era zed at the flowers with tearful eyes, 

He kissed their drooping leaves ; 
It was for the Lord of Paradise 

He bound them in his sheaves. 



38 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



" My Lord hath need of these flowerets gay/' 

1 he reaper said, and smiled; 
" Dear tokens of the earth are they, 

Where He was once a child." 

" They shall all bloom in fields of light, 

Transplanted by my care ; 
And saints, upon their garments white, 

These sacred blossoms wear." 



And the mother gave, in tears and pain, 
The flowers she most did love; 

She knew she should find them all again 
In the fields of light above. 



0, not in cruelty, not in wrath, 

The Keaper came that day ; 
'Twas an angel visited the green earth, 

And took the flowers away. 

Longfellow. 



If yon bright stars, which gem the night, 
Be each a blissful dwelling sphere, 
Where kindred spirits reunite 
Whom death hath torn asunder here, 
How sweet it were at once to die, 
To leave this blighted orb afar ; 
Mixt soul and soul to cleave the sky 
And soar away from star to star. 

But oh ! how dark, how drear and lone, 
Would seem the brightest world of bliss, 
If, wandering through each radiant one, 
We fail to find the loved of this ! 
If there no more the ties shall twine 
Which death's cold hand alone could sever, 
Ah, then these stars in mockery shine, 
More hateful as they shine for ever ! 

It cannot be — each hope, each fear, 
That lights the eye or clouds the brow, 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 39 



Proclaims there is a happier sphere, 
Than this bleak world that holds us now. 
There is a voice which sorrow hears, 
When heaviest weighs life's galling chain, 
3 Tis heaven that whispers — "dry your tears, 
The pure in heart shall meet again." 

Leggeit, 



And how could Abraham's bosom, the region of the 
blessed, be other than a state of enjoyment to the 
Christian ? There we shall see Lazarus, and be com- 
forted with him ! There we shall see father Abraham, 
and rest from all our sorrows, reclining on its bosom ! 
There we shall see the ancient patriarchs and prophets ! 
There we shall see Jeremiah, who wept over the deso- 
lations of Israel ; and Daniel, who, in defiance of the 
king and his nobles, prayed three times a day to his 
God, and whom his God saved from the mouth of the 
lions ! There we shall find the apostles, and Luther, 
and Calvin, and Zwinglius, and all that host of worthies 
of whom the world was not worthy, who, amid a wicked 
and perverse generation, maintained their fidelity to 
the end, and received not the mark of the beast. How 
can the place of departed spirits fail to be a place of 
joy to the Christian ? for there he shall meet all those 
pious relatives and friends whom heaven indulgent gave 
to him awhile, and heaven mysterious soon resumed 



Let me be thankful for the pleasing hope that though 
God loves my child too well to permit it to return to 
me, he will ere long bring me to it. And then that 



40 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

endeared paternal affection, whicn would have been a 
cord to tie me to earth, and have added new pangs to 
my removal from it, will be as a golden chain to draw 
me upwards, and add one farther charm and joy even 
to paradise itself. Was this my desolation ? this my 
sorrow? to part with thee for a few days, that I might 
receive thee for ever, (Philem., ver. 15,) and find thee 
what thou art ? It is for no language but that of hea- 
ven, to describe the sacred joy which such a meeting 
must occasion. — Doddridge. 



There is a land like Eden fair, 

But more than Eden blest ; 
The wicked cease from troubling there, 

The weary are at rest. 

There is a land of calmest shore, 
Where ceaseless summers smile, 

And winds, like angel whispers, pour 
Across the shining isle. 

There is a land of purest mirth, 
Where healing waters elide ; 

And there the wearied child of earth 
Untroubled may abide. 

There is a land where sorrow's sons, 
Like ocean's wrecks, are tossed ; 

But there revive those weeping ones, 
And life's dull sea is crossed. 

There is a land where small and great 

Before the Lord appear ; 
Th? spoils of fortune, and of fate, 

Whom Heaven alone can cheer. 

There is a land where star-like shine 
The pearls of Christ's renown ; 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 41 



And gems, long buried in the mine x 
Are jewels in his crown. 

There is a land like Eden fair, 
But more than Eden blest ; 

O for a wing to waft me there, 
To fly and be at rest ! 



Some tell us all earthly love must die, 

Nor enter the heavenly land ; 
That friendship is lost above the sky 

' Midst the happy and joyous band. 
And can it be so 1 On ihat blissful shore 
Shall we meet the lov'd we have lost no more % 

They tell us that those unseen on earth 

Shall be dear as an only child ; 
And the mother belov'd, who gave us birth, 

Shall be met as the savage wild ! 
And can it be so ? in that land of love, 
Are there no joys of reunion above ? 

They tell us the pastor who taught us the way 

To the blessed abode of the just, 
Shall know us no more in eternity's day, 

Tho' the body's redeem'd from the dust. 
And can it be so, in that world of bliss ? 
Shall avc love less there than we do in this 1 

They tell us the martyr who fell on the shore, 
'Mid the war-cry, and horror untold, 

Shall meet his lov'd flock with joy no more 
Than the merchant who traffics for gold. 

And will it be so, in that golden street 

Where Williams, and all he held dear, shall meet % 

Is ignorance found in the Spirit's home ? 

Is memory left in the dust ? 
Then shall we not feel that we stand alone, 

As strangers among the just ? 
And can it be so, in that city of light, 
Where love is unfading, and joy ever bright ? 



42 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



Is darkness found in that cloudless sky 

Veiling the life just pass'cl : 
Forgotten the friends who saw us die 

All faithful and true to the last ? 
And can it be so ? — Shall we meet no more 
When this feverish dream of life is o'er ? 

Then where is the pastor's "crown of joy," 
And where the reward of the saint's employ ? 

And why do we cherish this restless love ? 
If all will be lost or forgotten above ? 

Oh ! can it be thus, — in that blissful place 

Where we see the redeem'd ones face to face J 

Anonymous. 



"Shall I know my kindred in Heaven?" 
We may expect, if Christians, to meet and know our pious 
kindred in the land beyond the grave. 

We are not to know less hereafter. Now we know in 
part, but then that which is perfect will have come. This 
is our childhood, that shall be our maturer life, when we 
shall have put away childish things. Now we see through 
a glass darkly, but then face to face, and knowing as we are 
known. Abraham, Dives, and Lazarus, know each other. 
Moses and Elias are Moses and Elias still. The immortal 
whom John saw, Rev. xxii, 8, 9, introduced himself as a 
"fellow-servant," and " of his brethren the prophets ;" and 
the Jews are to see and know Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
in the kingdom of God. It cannot be that the saved shall 
not know each other in the heavenly land. Such an ar- 
rangement would detract indescribably from the bliss of 
that final state. "A stranger in heaven! The past all 
forgotten ! Father, mother, wife, children and other kin- 
dred here, but I can never know them! I promised to 
meet some of them in heaven — they are here. I am here, 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 43 

I may have met them, sung with them, shouted with them 
harped with them, walked the streets of the city and the 
sea of glass with them, bowed before the everlasting throne 
with them, but I do not, cannot know them ! Earth was 
the grave of friendship — I can greet those I knew and 
loved on earth no more forever !" Ah, no, heart stricken 
mourner ! No such soliloquy will ever be heard beyond 
the grave. Heaven is a land of purest social bliss, peopled 
with bright circles of deathless friends. We shall know 
each other in heaven ! 

Ves ! oh, yes ! in that land, that happy land, 
They that meet shall know each other, 
Far beyond the rolling river, 
Meet to sing and love for ever, 
In that happy land. 

How joyful the thought of such a meeting! How bliss- 
ful the prospect of such a heaven ! How fondly we dwell 
upon the tender theme of re-union with "the loved and 
lost" in the regions of eternal life! We stand and gaze 
across the river of death, we believe and hope, and yet we 
love to repeat the fond interrogatory, " Shall 1 know my 
kindred in heaven 1" — //. Mattison. 



44 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

There are several objections brought against the doctrine 
of future recognition, some four of which we shall answer. 

FIRST OBJECTION. 

The great change in death, 

"We shall all be changed." This objection may be 
stated in a familiar way, thus : As the butterfly, sporting 
on a summer day, has little, if any, resemblance to the grub 
that slept wingless and motionless only a little while before 
among the clods of the valley; so the glorified body will 
be so changed and improved that all traces of what it was 
once will have vanished, and consequently a recognition of 
friends will be impossible. 

The change which is to take place, especially in our 
bodies, at the transition of death, will in many respects be 
great. A little careful inquiry into this matter will show 
this difficulty only apparent. 

A great change may take place, both in the body and 
spirit, without destroying their marks of identity and their 
peculiarities of character, by which recognition takes place. 

There is a great difference between a small sapling and 
a full-grown tree ; and yet, great as the apparent change is, 
the marks of its identity continue throughout all the stages 
of its existence. 

In the different stages of human life, through infancy, 
childhood, youth, manhood, and age, the same being con- 
tinues, carrying with him his peculiarities and powers from 



HEAVEN UNVEILED . 45 

one stage to the other, these marks of identity by which he 
is recognized as the same person. 

The transfiguration of Christ was no doubt intended, in 
part, to give the apostles a glimpse of what they might "ex- 
pect when " He should change their vile bodies." Here 
the change which took place in their Master was great : 
" The fashion of his countenance was altered, and his rai- 
ment was white and glistening," "and his face did shine as 
the sun ;" yet still they knew him from the rest amid that 
" excellent glory." 

His glorious person was still, as to its external marks, 
what it was before, and could be recognized as his through 
the veil of holy light which enshrouded it. May not the 
same be the case with us in our glorified bodies ? 

Also after his resurrection from the dead, when the dis- 
ciples were together at Jerusalem, after He had risen He 
appeared to them in his resurrection body. Luke xxiv., 
36-44. From this passage we learn that Christ showed 
His disciples that His body was composed of "flesh and 
bones," also showed them " his hands and his feet." 
Here, then, they had marks even in His resurrection body, 
by which they might have known Him at once. Just let 
this whole scene be transferred to heaven ; and why may 
not the like take place there as well as here ? 

SECOND OBJECTION. 

If it were true, the Scriptures would be more explicit. 
It would be more clearly revealed. The fact that this 
doctrine is not often, and then only incidentally, mentioned, 
is rather a proof in its favor, than against it. It shows 
that the truth of it was taken for granted, at the time when 
it was thus incidentally alluded to— it was not necessary to 



46 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

propound it formally as a doctrine, but merely to allude to 
it as something already universally believed. In this 
view of the matter, one incidental allusion is even strong- 
er than a direct assertion. Thus, if I say I traveled 
under the rays of the hot sun, this is the strongest possible 
proof that it was a clear summer day. Moreover, there 
are many of the most important doctrines of the Scriptures 
resting on precisely the same ground as this. Such, for 
instance, are the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the immor- 
tality of the soul, female communion, family worship, and 
other less prominent doctrines and duties. 

THIRD OBJECTION. 

Christ's answer to the Sadducees. 

An objection lies here, built upon the answer which 
Christ gave to the Sadducees, Matt. xxii. 29, 30 : "Ye do 
err, not knowing," &c. All that is here asserted is, that in 
Heaven they do not marry — it is by no means either said 
or intimated that they do not know each other. The Sav- 
iour could have met the difficulty which they sought in this 
instance, by simply denying the doctrine of heavenly recog- 
nition, and we may suppose that He would have done se 
were it not true. He could have said to them, Your ob- 
jection amounts to nothing ; for there is no knowledge of 
acquaintances, and no extension of earthly ties beyond the 
grave ; even husbands and wives will have no knowledge 
of each other there, and hence your question, Whose wife, 
&c, has no force by way of objection. 

He does not, however, resort to this mode of silencing 
them. He does not say that they shall not know each 
other, but only that they shall not marry — " they are 
as the angels of God in heaven," or as Luke says, "neither 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 47 

can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels," — 
not in every respect — not certainly in being strangers to 
each other eternally ; but they are equally immortal as the 
angels ; " they die no more." Because they die no more, 
they need no more reparation for losses through death by 
means of the marriage institution ; hence this institution 
will not continue in heaven. This does not in the least in- 
timate that the affections begotten, and the friendships 
formed in this relation, shall not be renewed and continue 
in the heavenly social life. 

FOURTH OBJECTION. 

It will cause partiality in Heaven, 
Will it not introduce partiality in Heaven ? This ques- 
tion indicates an objection which is, at first sight, somewhat 
plausible. It can, however, be easily and satisfactorily 
answered. Should we even find it necessary to believe, 
that in heaven friends would love friends more than other 
saints, this could be without any evil effects. For there no 
feeling of jealousy will exist, to take cognizance of it. No 
one will stop in the general joy and harmony which w T ill 
characterize the heavenly intercourse, to measure with im- 
pious eye, the affections of other saints, much less desire to 
attract any to himself, to the disparagement of others. 
Do Christians here on earth feel jealous of other Chris- 
tians, because they know them to be peculiarly attached to 
their own kindred ? Certainly not. They rather praise 
them for it. Peculiar individual attachments are not un- 
congenial in a perfect state of society. On the contrary, 
it is one of the most prominent and delightful features of 
grace in this life, that it begets and increases general love 
to all, and particular love to some. The strongest particu- 



48 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

lar attachments that earth has ever beheld were formed and 
continued under the power of the Christian life. Will 
glory divide what grace has united ? 

Christ by his example encouraged particular friendship — 
the family of Bethany and "the beloved disciple," showed 
His peculiar affections. In like manner, children that love 
each other are not thereby hindered, but assisted in loving 
others. So we see that peculiar attachments or preferences 
is no disparagement to other saints — the angels — or to 
Christ, even, as the great central light. 

As the moon, in moving round the earth, does not the 
less move with all the other planets round the sun, so the 
saints in heaven, who cluster, by sw r eet silent attractions 
around the objects of their peculiar attachments, will not 
thereby fail to move on, with all saints, round the Saviour, 
as the Sun of Righteousness, in the general harmony of 
heaven. 



In heaven, the love of God and the love of our nei^h- 
bor will be our highest duty, our highest privilege, our 
highest joy; and so w 7 e trust it will be in reference to those 
endearments which now constitute the chief charm of life : 
they will be puriiied, strengthened, and perpetuated. 

Dorr. 



Heaven Unveiled. 



"We, according to his promise, look for new heavens 
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."— blble, 



Is heaven a name, or a reality ? 

A sinless world, or but a state of rest ? 
An Eden that the saints shall one day see, 

Or but a pleasant dreaming of the blest ? 
It is a kingdom of the good and pure ; 

It is a realm of loveliness and light ; 
It is a perfect earth that shall endure 

With God himself and all his angels bright. 

It is a blissful never-ending meeting, 

Above all earthly ones, replete with joys ; 
Unlike all sensuous pleasures which are fleeting, 

It always satisfies, but never cloys. 
'Tis an inheritance that is secure ; 

'Tis wealth that shall not perish in a day ; 
A life of pure delight that shall endure ; 

It is a crown that fadeth not away. 



50 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

It is a day of everlasting light ; 

'Tis one eternal round of bliss complete ; 
It is a Paradise whose lilies white 

Are blooming odorous with fragrance sweet. 
The body and the mind rejoice in health; 

Rare beauty there results from purity ; 
Perfection constitutes the spirit's wealth, 

And all ensure the soul's tranquillity. 

I sing the joys of heaven ! Eternity 

With all its glories opens to my view ; 
The splendors of another world I see, 

Where life is perfect and forever new. 
Tired of the false allurements of the age ; 

Tired of the wickedness of earth, the mind 
Explores the future, and upon this page 

Records what it in all its flights doth find. 

God grant me magic power of thought to tell 

The story of that dear delightful land, 
Of yon supernal world to sing, where dwell 

The Infinite and all the shining band 
Of angels who have dwelt forever there, 

Of saints redeemed by Christ on Calvary, 
Of martyred souls that suffered — gone to share 

Celestial joys from death's dark bondage free. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 51 

Home of the dearly loved, the early lost ! 

Home of many a tender human flower, 
Withered at once by death's untimely frost, 

And taken hence in childhood's happy hour 
To bloom anew beside perennial bowers, 

With precious friends to be transported there 
To dwell in peace secure in heavenly towers, 

And drink the fragrance of those blossoms fair. 

Dispel, oh mists ! that settle on my sight ! 

And thou, imagination, spread thy wings, 
And soar above the clouds of earthly night : 

The New Jerusalem the minstrel sings. 
Broad as the universe our Eden lies, 

Wide as the light of heaven it doth extend, 
Vast as infinity the smiling skies 

That o'er the matchless realms of glory bend. 



52 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



n. 

"Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall 
raise up us also." — blble. 



As when, slow sailing from the arctic zone, 

A sea-bird — laden with the frozen rain — ■ 
Droops down into some lakelet warm and lone 

Amid the mountains, soon to spread again 
Its pinions to the breeze, and take its flight ; 

So doth the pilgrim drop into the tomb, 
To sleep in peacefulness his little night, 

Then rise in triumph from his bed of gloom. 

So too, as if, upon some winter's night, 

When all the landscape sleeps beneath the snows, 
And the white moon withdraws her frozen light, 

We sink with longing sadness to repose ; 
Then wake at morn, surprised to find that June's 

Bright days have come with all her leafy bowers, 
That birds are warbling forth their sweet love-tunes, 

And all the air is fragrant with the flowers. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 53 

So shall the Christian rise from his last sleep — 

The pleasant slumber of the grave — tho' brief, 
'Tis filled with dreams of heaven. From darkness deep 

His morn shall rise surpassing all belief 
Of human soul, in loveliness and light. 

Then let imagination spread her wing, 
Nor furl it till before the ravished sight 

Are spread the golden glories of our King. 

A light more lovely than the light of morn 

Illumes that world by mortals never trod ; 
From out Jehovah's throne that light is born ; 

It emanates from the Creator, God. 
It lumes the broad and boundless fields of heaven ; 

It lights the sun, the starry universe ; 
Oh ! that to me the genius might be given 

The splendors of its radiance to rehearse. 



The skies are all arrayed in brilliant hues, 

Such hues as oft a summer sunset throws 
Upon them here. Far off enchanting views 

Appear of purple mountains tinged with rose- 
Mountains all angel-peopled to the crest 

Far upward rise within the azure sheen — 
And haloed hills whose mansions of the blest, 

Smile down upon the vales that lie between. 



54 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Vales that no human eye could wander o'er, 

And landscapes that no human art could trace, 
Spread sloping to a river's radiant shore, 

That flows by fairy isles in matchless grace 
Midst meadows shimmering like an emerald sea, 

Midst ever blooming groves in tune with birds 
Of plumage rare and rarest minstrelsy, 

Midst pastures mottled o'er with happy herds. 

No frowning clouds do float in wrath above 

That new-created earth ; no storms do rage, 
But gentlest winds do fan with breath of love, 

The cheek of childhood and the brow of age. 
No dread volcano shall discharge with fire 

Its lava-tide upon the plains below ; 
No earthquake shake the world with fearful ire, 

Causing a trembling city's overthrow. 

No avalanche o'erwhelms the peaceful vale, 

Making a desert where all bloomed before, 
No cruel tempest with its battering hail 

Shall bring gaunt famine to the poor man's door. 
No fierce tornado shall sweep o'er that land, 

To wreck the mansions of the blest : by gales 
The softest all her lovely seas are fanned, 

As swiftly o'er the seaman safely sails. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 55 

An atmosphere surrounds that Eden clime 

Unchanged by fierce extremes of heat and cold ; 
While all that live below are marred by time, 

The habitants of heaven can ne'er grow old ; 
But endless youth and joy, and pleasures pure, 

Are the inheritance of dwellers there ; 
All sin is banished and they rest secure, 

For Jesus reigneth o'er that kingdom fair. 

The seasons make their usual round. The Spring 

With all its glad awakening of life, 
Its plants, its flowers, its happy birds that sing 

Their praises to the Lamb in friendly strife, 
With laughing brooks and purling streams that flow 

In songful brightness to some river's marge ; 
With rivulets that carry as they go 

Full many a fairy minstrel's rose-leaf barge. 

And gorgeous Summer with her roses — all 

The loveliest are re-created there — 
And millions more whose odors never pall, 

Adorn the gardens and perfume the air 
With fragrance like to orchard-blooms in May, 

Or like the roses of a morn in June, 
Or like pale lilies when a melting ray 

Of wanton sunlight kisses them at noon. 



56 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

The sun shall make his glorious journey. Dawn, 

With all her stainless beauty, shall be given ; 
And sunrise shall adorn with gems the lawn, 

And sow with silver all the fields of heaven. 
The sunset, too, arrayed in robes of gold, 

Shall tinge the dark-green hills with amber hue, 
And twilights, sweeter far than those of old, 

Shall change the golden skies to rosy blue. 

Not only in rich Autumn's dreamy time 

On vine and tree shall luscious fruits be found ; 
But all the circling year in that bright clime, 

On bowers of bliss fair fruitage shall abound ; 
And every joy the winter season brings 

Shall then be ours without its chilling frost ; 
All happy scenes and all delightful things 

That we enjoy on earth shall not be lost. 

Our new-made world shall satisfy, delight, 

Tea, fill with rapture every lofty mind, 
Within it all pure things that bless the sight, 

The ear, the heart of man we sure shall find. 
Death ne'er can enter in that fair domain ; 

But when the records of this world shall close, 
Then, then shall cease his dread despotic reign, 

And back for aye be shut from whence he rose. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 57 

" Love not this world nor things that in it are," 

It is not worthy of a mortal's love. 
Oh ! let the Gospel be thy guiding star, 

"And thy affections place on things above." 
There is no real happiness for dwellers here, 

But only now and then a throb of joy ; 
Life's transient pleasures that so sweet appear 

Do fascinate at first but soon destroy. 

Alas ! poor fallen earth ! there's scarce a trace 

Of that rare loveliness which was thy dower ; 
The monster sin hath furrowed deep thy face, 

And thou art even in the demon's power. 
At times thou seemest beautiful ; but no 

Primeval beauty, 'tis but semblance faint ; 
'Tis like th'enticing harlot's tinsel show, 

Made up of gaudy garb and paste and paint. 



58 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



m. 

"Old things are passed away; behold, all things are 
become new."— Bible. 



The mighty cities of a primal age, 

Built up by human hands, are overthrown ; 
Naught but their names doth live on hist'ry's page, 

The site whereon they flourished is unknown. 
The pagan temples of the hoary past, 

The gorgeous palaces of ancient kings, 
Are crumbling marble — ruins stern and vast, 

Where dwell the lowest of created things. 

The wondrous statues of the infant world, 

The lofty columns that in grandeur rose, 
Prone to the earth to ruin have been hurled 

Beneath the dust of ages to repose. 
Upon the brow of earth is writ " decay ;" 

Disease and death do follow in her train. 
We live an hour — we perish in a day, 

And is there nothing; that shall live a^ain? 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 59 

Must love then die when this frail body dies ? 

Must all our happy friendships cease at death ? 
Must faces vanish when we close our eyes, 

And hopes and memories perish with our breath ? 
If so, then .come annihilation — come 

Eternal sleep when this great struggle ends ; 
Let all our being perish cold and dumb, 

If heaven give not back at last our friends ! 

It cannot be ! the soul at last survives 

The wrecks of time ; the spirit lives for aye. 
The soul that suffers here — that bravely strives — 

Shall rise triumphant in immortal day, 
Clothed with a new-created body, fit 

For that celestial state to which it tends, 
Eternal as the God that fashioned it, 

In whom all wisdom with perfection blends. 



60 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



IV. 

"For now we see through a glass darkly, but then 
face to face."— Bible 



What joyous greetings shall take place in bliss ! 

Oh ! what ecstatic meetings shall we see 
'Twixt friends that parted long ago in this 

Bleak world, hut who shall there united be. 
Dear hands that when last clasped were deathly cold 

And wet by many a mourner's bitter tear, 
Shall give a fonder pressure than of old, 

When through the weary years they labored here. 

Faces that when we gazed upon them last, 

Beneath a coffin lid lay cold and pale, 
Shall sweeter smile than when in the dim past 

They smiled consent to love's inspiring tale. 
They loved on earth and now they love again ; 

The once dread farewell word shall ne'er be spoken ; 
The hearts are bound in one that death made twain, 

The tie that binds them there shall ne'er be broken. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 61 

Sister ! do thorns obstruct thy pathway here ? 

Art mourning that thy brightest dreams are cross' d ? 
Repine no more ! shed no regretful tear ; 

Kind heaven shall give thee back thy brother lost, 
In all the beauty of his youthful prime, 

With every grace that from redemption springs, 
With form more perfect than was his in Time, 

When bowed with griefs that stern misfortune brings. 

Mother ! whose babe sinks sweetly into rest, 

Who sees in all its innocence its sad eyes close, 
Who folds its hands across a sinless breast, 

And leaves it lonely to its long repose, 
Weep not ! for thou didst give a cherub birth ; 

Soon to thy waiting arms it shall be given ; 
The precious bud that might not bloom on earth 

Shall blossom in the garden fields of heaven. 

Brother ! art weary with thy heavy load ? 

Are life's misfortunes hard for thee to bear ? 
Take heart ! the martyrs travelled the same road ; 

With them thou shalt a crown of glory wear. 
Father ! thy journey ings here are almost done ; 

How thick around thy form death's shafts are hurl'd ! 
Thou soon shalt see the setting of thy sun, 

But it shall rise upon a new-made world. 



62 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Daughter ! mourn not thy angel mother ; she, 

Thy light upon life's rugged pathway here ; 
Her counsels live, and she shall live to be 

Thy guardian angel in another sphere. 
And friends whose hearts were like the needle true, 

Though cruel death hath long divided them, 
Yet, in a few more years they shall renew 

Their friendships in the New Jerusalem. 

But what shall be our occupation there ? 

To what employ shall we devote oar powers ? 
In what delightful labor shall we share 

In those bright cycles of uncounted hours ? 
Be first and highest, adoration — praise — 

Praise to the Ruler of the realms of heaven. 
And all the choirs of Paradise shall raise 

Their voices, and ten thousand songs be given 

To the Redeemer sitting on His throne, 

Beside His Father, God ; like to the roar 
Of seas, when o'er them sweeps the great cyclone, 

They then shall give Him praise for evermore ! 
For evermore ! can this poor fettered mind 

Measure its limitless duration ? Never ! 
Till it is freed from sin. It then shall find 

In heaven revealed the meaning of " forever ! " 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 63 

O glorious home ! the city of our God — 

The gorgeous city with its sapphire walls ; 
The golden streets no mortal ever trod, 

Its diamond palaces with wondrous halls ! 
There we shall meet — there will be gathered in 

The mighty host that shall hereafter dwell 
In this dark world — redeemed from sin — 

To praise His name who doeth all things well. 



"They shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of 
them ; they shall not labor in vain." — blble. 



How sweet the thought ! it charms away despair, 

That, when we're passed that soul-releasing birth, 
Our present joys we'll have, and follow ther^ 

The innocent pursuits we loved on earth. 
Earth's floral Edens are as naught beside 

The gardens of that region of the blest 
Where God and all His shining hosts abide, 

Where all the ransomed of creation rest. 



64 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Do we love flowers ? we'll tend them there on high ; 

There they shall flourish in perennial bloom, 
There they shall blossom but shall never die, 

Nor lose in life one breath of their perfume. 
The flowers that we do nurse with tenderest care 

Until they seem of rays of glory made, 
Smile but a little while in beauty rare, 

Then, even in the midst of Summer, fade. 

But through the boundless fields of Paradise, 

The perfect senses of the saints they bless, 
They wake to life and never close their eyes, 

But bloom for ever in their loveliness. 
We'll wander o'er those fair Elysian fields, 

The mountains and the forests we'll explore, 
And cull the sweetest flowers that heaven yields, 

And love to name them as we did of yore. 

Do we love Nature as we journey here ? 

The lovely landscape under silver skies, 
Blue rivers rippling in the sunlight clear, 

The autumn groves with all their rainbow dyes ? 
Or love to wander in the woods of Spring, 

And there recline beneath the whispering trees — ■ 
To hear the cascade's song — the brooklet sing ? 

Or gaze upon the grandeur of the seas ? 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 65 

So we shall love throughout His universe 

To gaze upon the wondrous works of God, 
To range in worlds unblighted by the curse 

Of sin — where no fell demon ever trod. 
Broad realms of beauty, that eternity 

Will scarce suffice the saints to wander o'er, 
Shall then be open to the pilgrim free, 

To be in bondage to decay no more. 

Doth music charm thine ear ? do dulcet sounds 

Entrance thy being ? and when melody 
At morn in all the atmosphere surrounds 

Thy home, dost wish that Song might never die? 
Or when the winged minstrels of the Spring 

Do warble out their mystic numbers, and — 
As if the earth were still an Eden — sing 

Their orisons of praise, a sinless band; 

Or when upon the air a bugle note 

Comes pealing o'er the waters thrillingly, 
Or when the flute's melodious tones do float 

Upon the breeze, do they enrapture thee? 
And when within the old cathedral dim 

The organ thunders and the choir throws 
A soul into the music of the hymn, 

Dost wish the harmony might never close ? 



66 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Rejoice, oh, earth-bound soul ! Sublimer song 

Than ever echoed since the world began, 
Shall burst in anthems from the ransomed throng, 

That sings the earth all purified, and man 
Redeemed. Song shall pervade the universe 

Of God ; and voices that shall never tire 
Like those of earth, shall then for aye rehearse 

God's love, one vast, one myriad-angel choir. 

And I doubt not that all the grand old songs 

That have inspired the Christian here below 
Shall then be sung by fair seraphic throngs 

Till e'en the heavens with song shall overflow. 
" Perhaps Dundee's wild warbling strains " shall rise, 

Perhaps Old Hundred's chiming thunders roll ; 
Or "Coronation " fill the airs of Paradise, 

And bid sweet memories thrill along the soul. 

And oh ! pale devotee of science ! thou 

Who dost delight to study out the laws 
That govern nature and its workings now, 

And seek'st to know of all results the cause, 
And day and night through all the fleeting years 

Dost delve into the depths of mystery, 
Until thy baffled vision scarcely peers 

Into that dread unknown, futurity, 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 67 

Take heart ! In that fair future world of light, 

The mysteries of science shall be plain ; 
And realms of knowledge fill the mental sight, 

And ope their treasures to th'immortal brain. 
There thou shalt study, but with perfect mind, 

Untrammelled by the gyves that bind thee here ; 
There untold wealth of wisdom thou shalt find, 

When pain departs and reason's eye is clear. 

And oh ! thou dreaming poet, who dost muse 

Prophetic of the future, and dost sing 
Another Eden like the first, who views 

This earth transformed into a thing 
Of perfect beauty, and behold' st her sons 

Lifted once more into the dignity 
Of royal manhood, pure and sinless ones, 

Freed from the primal curse, for ever free, 

Dream on ! Thy dreams shall soon be realized, 

Thy prophecies shall come to pass. This world 
For which the Saviour Jesus agonized, 

Shall be redeemed, and Death and Sin be hurled 
Down, down to nether realms of darkness where 

Foul demons congregate — the place where all 
The enemies of Truth and Justice share 

Eternal judgment in perpetual thrall. 



68 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



VI. 
" This mortal shall put on immortality."— Bible. 



Ah yes ! the new-born earth shall then wheel on 

In majesty through starry realms of space, 
And man, immortal man shall dwell upon 

Her fair domain, a heaven-exalted race. 
Oh, skeptic ! dost thou doubt this pleasant truth — 

Dost doubt that fallen man shall live again ? 
Dost doubt that earth shall live in endless youth, 

Dost think that all the Christian's hopes are vain ? 

Nature reproves thy stupid doubting. E'en 

Heathen philosophers refute thee. All 
The pagan tribes that ever yet have been, 

Proclaimed that man shall live — that at the call 
Of heaven the slumbering dead shall rise 

Divested of their mouldering clay, arrayed 
In body incorruptible, that dies 

No more, but dwells in light that ne'er shall fade. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 69 

Oh, skeptic ! heed th'important lesson ; heed 

The warnings of great Nature's voice ; arrange 
Thy trifling cares, that in thy sorest need 

Thou may 'st be ready for the last great change. 
For come it must to all, or soon or late, 

Tho' none but God can tell the awful hour ; 
Prepare, oh man ! for thy approaching fate, 

Nor foolish throw away a priceless dower. 

Child of the grave ! go out with me at night 

And gaze into that boundless vault of blue. 
Behold the universe of suns that light 

The domain of a God. Upon the view 
Unnumbered as the waves of ocean, when 

'Tis fanned by gentle winds — appear the stars ; 
And realms of space, beyond all human ken. 

That ne'er shall be explored till life unbars 

The gates that shut the soul away — -perchance 

Are filled with glowing orbs, that, as they burn, 
Light other worlds that glitter 'neath the glance 

Of Him who fashioned them ! Then, mortal, turn, 
And view thyself clothed in a form divine — 

Endowed with reason and with wondrous thought ; 
And tell me if thou canst, oh ! reader mine, 

If suffering virtue struggles here for naught ? 



TO HEAVEX UNVEILED. 

Believe it not ! A God that can create 

From chaos mighty worlds, as well can save — 
Can bid the mouldering body soon or late 

Arise with life immortal from the grave. 
Then sing ! O traveller on life's highway ; 

Fear not while passing through the night of gloom ; 
Rejoice ! O mourner who hath lain away 

Dear ones ; ye soon shall meet beyond the tomb. 



vn. 

"Neither shall thet learn war axy more." — Bible. 



Ah ! who can gaze upon a world like this, 

And pray not for a better, holier sphere 
Beyond the confines of this wilderness, 

Where war and all its woes shall ne'er appear ? 
A pall of misery shrouds this fated earth ; 

'Tis filled with ravages of sin and crime ; 
Our very lives, e'en from the hour of birth, 

Alas ! are but one endless mourning-time. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 7i 

What pen can trace the dread realities 

Of war ? What artist paint its horrors V Who 
Can e'er recount the woes — the tragedies 

That mark the battle-field ? Approach and view 
The scene of carnage : See that lurid cloud 

That hangs above it like the pall of fate; 
Ten thousand maddened men together crowd. 

With fell ferocity and demon hate. 

The ear is deafened by the cannon's ro&t — 

The thunder of the battle, and the cries 
Of men. The earth is sodden by their gore * 3 

A trodden desert all their landscape lies. 
The blessed shining sun is veiled from sight, 

The fresh green grass is crimsoned o'er with blood ; 
The angel, Mercy, weeps above the light, 

The silver brook becomes a scarlet flood ! 

Now fierce the battle rages, and now thickly fall 

The dead and dying, like the autumn leaves 
When beaten by the hail ; while, over all 

The scene, the tender heart of pity grieves. 
Now forward the opposing hosts advance ! 

The struggling legions have in fury met ; 
And long between the foes, with sword and lance, 

Red slaughter rages till the sun is set. 



72 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

The day is lost ! The twilight gathers round; 

O'er all the plain a fearful gloom is spread ; 
The wounded cry for succor, but no sound 

Arises from the silent ghastly dead. 
All night upon that gory field they lie 

Beneath the pitying stars ; there, there alone 
They suffer, with no friend to linger nigh ; 

Their cries are mingled with the wind's low moan, 

Go, count the desert's vast expanse of sand, 

And numler well the mighty ocean's waves ; 
O'er all the earth and sea , in every land, 

The curse of wsly has made as many graves. 
Must this continue on through endless years ? 

Earth still be shrouded in the gloom of woe ? 
Then God himself delights in all the tears, 

And sorrows of His children here below. 

It cannot be ! As pure as when with grand 

Creative power this mighty globe was hurled 
Upon its endless journey, from His hand, 

Ere long, it shall revolve again a perfect world ; 
Freed from the foul corruption of the age, 

Freed from the treachery of heartless men ; 
Freed from the sordid soul-polluting page 

Of those who w^ield a hell-inspired pen. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 73 



VIII. 
"Behold we count them happy which endure."— Bible. 



Terrestrial bliss ! 'tis but an idle dream ; 

And who expects it here shall wait in vain ; 
They have not learned life's lesson, who may deem 

That happiness can coexist with pain ; 
Happiness seems a most delightful thing 

To mortals, while in this dark world they grope ; 
Ah me ! 'tis like a fixed star's glittering ! 

There is no pleasure left us but in hope. 

Happiness, ah ! it has a royal sound ; 

It is a fairy voice that leads us on : 
We seek the hidden form and when 'tis found 

We grasp the lovely phantom — but 'tis gone ! 
Happiness ! 'tis a fancy of the brain ! 

'Tis like a lovely vision of our sleep ; 
We live a breath, forgetful of our pain, 

And then we wake, but wake, alas ! to weep. 



74 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Go, ask the man of wealth and fortune, who 

Puts on the glitter and the show of wealth, 
If he be happy ; list his answer true : 

" I'll give it all for one rare jewel — health." 
Behold him pass in golden livery, 

Envied by fools — the victim, too. of hate; 
And yet how far from happiness is he, 

Perplexed with doubts about his future state. 

Obtains he praise? it is a flatterers lie; 

Or has he lame? the breath of any clown! 
With all his tinsel gems he ne'er can buy 

A saint's contentment nor an angers crown. 
He hoards his gold — it is the prey of thieves ; 

He piles up wealth — it breeds a world of cares. 
At last, like any slave, he dies and leaves 

His gathered treasure to contending heirs. 

And oh ! thou scholar, who hath struggled up 

Through poverty, perhaps, to learning's mount, 
Thou know'st full well, in life thou canst but sup 

One little taste from the perennial fount 
Of knowledge ; but far distant thou canst see 

From thence a boundless ocean to explore. 
Thou canst not quench thy thirst, but thou must be 

In time a feeble swimmer near the shore. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 75 

Thou mighty man of learning ! who hast scanned 

A thousand tomes, hast written many, too, 
Thou hast thy secret sorrows, for thy hand 

Hath done some things that thou would'st fain undo; 
Perhaps a few have loved thee, and a few 

Have e'en expressed their admiration. Some 
Do look on thee with malice, and pursue 

Thee with the venom of a reptile dumb. 

The poet, also, crowned with wreath of bays ; 

While many a generous heart there be that kens 
His worth, the world doth ridicule his lays, 

And critics goad him with their poisoned pens. 
But if he have (poor man !) no other goal 

Than fame's to reach, and have not hope to bless, 
The shafts of envy shall transfix his soul, 

And fill his future life with bitterness. 

Perhaps when on imagination's wing 

He soars on high, a glimpse of yon bright Land 
May beam upon his sight, and bid him sing 

With all the fervor of a cherub band. 
But sorrow soon doth mingle with his song, 

And grief shall change it to a plaintive strain, 
Then like a wounded bird that's fluttered long, 

He droops and dies upon the dusty plain. 



<6 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Behold the honored statesman ! Dost thou think 

That, while on Fame's proud pinnacle he stands, 
He has no cup of bitterness to drink — 

That there he sits secure from wicked hands ? 
Behold the martyred Liucoln ! him the great, 

The good, the gentle as a winsome child ! 
Struck as an angel from his lofty state — 

The nation to its loss unreconciled. 

And all the mighty conquerors who sweep 

From this poor world its beauty and its bloom, 
And cause its crushed inhabitants to weep, 

And make its flowery surface one great tomb, 
All shall be tilled with misery at last ; 

The victims of inevitable fate ; 
For retribution follows fierce and fast, 

And wreaks terrific vengeance soon or late 1 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 77 



IX. 
"And there shall be no more death."— Bible. 



Death, death ! the dread of all that dwell below, 

The poisoner of every earthly joy — 
He ne'er can enter where the ransomed go, 

Though here he reigns a demon to destroy : 
Though here he rages like a fiend unbound 

With power to prey upon the human race — 
To cull the fairest flowers that bloom around 

And plant them in his gloomy dwelling-place. 

The surface of the globe is but a grave, 

'Tis one vast tomb in which the dead are lain, 
Uri numbered as the ripples of the wave, 

And countless as the atoms of the plain. 
The very soil on which we daily tread 

Is but the dust of those that once had life, 
And down upon the ocean's oozy bed 

Have millions sunk beneath the stormy strife. 



78 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

The spoiler Death doth enter every home; 

He culls from thence the sweetest and the fairest ; 
He enters, too, 'neath every palace dome, 

And takes at will the beautiful, the rarest. 
He enters oft (alas ! with stealthy tread) 

The little humble cottage by the way, 
And rudely takes its sole supporting head, 

Bringing despair where all till then was gay. 

With wanton zeal he enters many a place, 

Where every bosom overflows with gladness — 
Too often takes the one whose winning grace 

Beguiled full many a heart of half its sadness. 
The tender infant of a few short days 

Doth wither at his touch, and quickly dies. 
The aged, for some reason, longer stays, 

But he at last must close his weary eyes. 

Oh, primal curse ! his reign is everywhere ; 

O'er all the continents his rule extends ; 
He roams the world on every thoroughfare, 

And while there's life his conquest never ends. 
In every family, in every land 

Are dark habiliments and bitter weeping 
For some lost member of a happy band 

Whose dearest eyes are closed in deathly sleeping. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 79 

Death reigns triumphant on the ocean. Oh ! 

When storm and tempest shake the slumbering sea, 
And all the maddened winds begin to blow, 

He then enjoys a kind of fiendish glee. 
Proud ships are dashed like bubbles on the rocks ; 

Their crews sink down with but a smothered groan ; 
'Tis then the puny might of man he mocks, 

Ah ! then he rules the dreary deep alone ! 

How sad to look upon a human face 

Whose features death hath set his signet on ! — 
And hourly see depart each lovely grace 

That made it once so sweet to look upon ! 
To see (once red) those purple fevered lips 

Essay to speak a farewell word with pain — 
To see the sad eyes close in death's eclipse, 

And limbs to stiiFen ne'er to move again 1 



SO HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



X. 

"amd i will wipe away all tears from off their faces.' 
-Bible. 



This world is but a vale of tears ; alas ! 

Mankind have wept through all the centuries ; 
E'er since that erring pair were called to pass 

From Eden, tears have mingled with our bliss. 
We weep, we laugh, and then we weep again ; 

It is the same sad round of joy and tears ; 
From tears to triumphs, and from peace to pain ; 

Even our hopes do alternate with fears. 

Great prophets of, the elder world have wept 

Over the lands they labored to restore, 
And midst the vile abominations kept 

Their hearts still pure ; but they shall weep no more. 
With lamentations of the soul they saw 

The wide-spread desolations sin had made, 
Then plead submission to offended law, 

They plead Jehovah's claims must be obeyed. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 81 

And Jesus, gazing o'er Jerusalem, 

Wept holy tears, as none but He could weep ; 
Pure tears of love divine, each one a gem, 

In worth above all treasures of the deep. 
But Jesus weeps no more. His mission here 

Is ended. Now in heaven He doth rest — 
All tears are banished from that holy sphere, 

With full fruition all the saints are blessed. 

On earth, unto the poor and the oppressed, 

This life is but a heritage of tears ; 
With hope of future glory only blessed 

They plod in toil and sorrow all their years. 
Oh ! let them bear with fortitude their woes, 

And look to Him who bore His cross alone, 
Then He will sure sustain them till life's close, 

And bid them sit beside Him on His throne. 

But oh ! cheer up, sad heart, nor longer dwell 

On earthly pictures of such sombre hue, 
But turn thine eyes towards Paradise and tell 

What other visions open to thy view. 
Rejoice ! for there shall be no death in heaven ; 

Exult then, O my brother, in thy hope ; 
For fear from out thy soul shall hence be driven, 

When first the portals of the skies do ope. 



82 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Then farewell earth and welcome death, if we, 

Led on by Hope, may wander safely through 
His dark domain to grand eternity ! 

There we can catch the soul -reviving view 
Of glory infinite. There joys supreme, 

Beyond the faint conception of the mind, 
Then brightly upon th'immortal brow shall beam 

Far, far above the splendors left behind. 



XI. 

"Are they not ministering spirits sent from Go\>? v - 

BlBLE. 



Oft when we close our eyes by day or night, 

The forms that we have loved do hover nigh ; 
They throng sweet visions on our mental sight, 

In all the beauty of the days gone by. 
And faces fair as pictures of the morn, 

Do smile us welcome there ; and voices dumb 
For long, long weary years (now heaven-born,) 

Do move the lips that gently whisper " come ! " 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 83 

As one, when on a quiet summer ocean, 

Beholds the sun rise proudly from the sea, 
Whose blushing waters sparkle with emotion, 

And smile a welcome to his majesty : 
Who sees, enchanted, azure clouds, with gold 

And silver edges, float around the sun, 
Like lakelets hung in air, so cloth unfold 

The heaven a soul redeemed hath won. 

" Saved ! saved ! " the new-created being cries, 

And songs triumphant warble from his tongue, 
According with the music of the skies, 

In melodies no mortal ever sung. 
Now, now begins to him a life of joy; 

A life of peace, yea, happiness supreme ; 
And looking back to earth's insane employ, 

The past doth seem a dark and troubled dream. 

The worthies of the ancient world are there ; 

The patriarchs that feared Jehovah's name, 
The prophets, too, that home of glory share 

With Him they were commissioned to proclaim. 
The apostles, too, that spread the gospel's light, 

And preached salvation through the name of Christ, 
Dwell in that world unutterably bright ; 

For heaven their lives on earth they sacrificed. 



84 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

The Christian heroes of more modern age 

Are holy saints and like the angels now ; 
The martyrs, too, who sank beneath the rage 

Of bigotry, no more are called to bow 
Before a popish or a pagan shrine, 

Or suffer death from torture or from flame ; 
For now they sing the praise of love divine, 

Forgetful of the world from which they came. 

Forgetful of the dungeon cold and dark, 

Forgetful of the hunger and the frost, 
Forgetful of the time when life's frail bark 

Upon the sea of misery was tossed. 
Forgetful of the gibbet and the sword, 

Forgetful of the torment of the stake, 
They dwell with Him whom they on earth adored, 

And everlasting songs of glory wake. 

'Twere needless that the holy muse should trace 

The names, the precious names, that fill 
The sacred list. Of every tongue and race 

They were — their words and deeds are living still, 
Familiar as the faces of our friends, 

Familiar as the voices of the day, 
Familiar as the sky that o'er us bends, 

They are and so they shall remain for aye ! 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



85 



XH. 
'For sin shall not have dominion over you." — Bible. 



Then shall exist the glorious brotherhood 

That we so long have hoped on earth would reign ; 
There each will seek his neighbor's perfect good, 

And none shall have one reason to complain. 
And what shall then perfect the happiness 

Of those who enter through the pearly gate ? 
All forms of sin that language can express, 

Shall be excluded from that royal state. 



Mean selfishness that blindly deems itself 

The only one created fit to live ; 
And avarice that lives for only pelf, 

Who'd rather rob a starving child, than give ; 
And pride, that seeks to overshine 

Its peers with plumes that fashion doth confer ; 
And vanity, that thinks it quite divine 

To inhale the breath of every flatterer ! 



86 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Ambition, too, that for the bauble fame, 

Will scourge the nations with its bloody rod ; 
And aristocracy, that boasts its name, 

And loves its sounding titles more than God ; 
Slander, that, vampire-like, doth love to feast 

Upon the good man's name with lying speech ; 
And lust, whose baser passions than the beast 

Devour itself and all within its reach ; 

Intemperance, that fills the world with shame, 

And drags its thousands to the drunkard's grave ; 
And war, whose gleaming falchion like a flame 

Devours like a plague the good, the brave ; 
Base treachery, all schemes since Adam's fall, 

To curse mankind, that ever yet had birth ; 
Crime, lying, misery, contention — all 

Shall be excluded from that perfect earth. 

Thank God ! there are no rivalries in heaven 

To foster strife and bigotry and pride ; 
All happiness from thence would soon be driven ; 

Where strife exists there love doth soon subside. 
But like the Trinity the saints are one ; 

Their interests, their hopes are all the same, 
The chorus of their song — " Thy will be done," 

And " everlasting honors crown Thy name." 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 87 

In all that vast unnumbered host shall reign 

One mind, one heart, one virtue — purity ; 
And all the virtues follow in its train, 

Crowned by the best and sweetest — charity ! 
Where charity prevails in every soul 

There is no room for discord — all is peace ; 
The happy throng yield to its sweet control, 

Hence their supernal joys shall never cease. 

O, pleasant world ! and bright beyond compare 

With anything that on this earth exists. 
Our scenes of beauty are as brief, as rare, 

And always clouded o'er with circling mists. 
O, happy beings ! that admitted there, 

Dwell midst its splendors in perpetual peace, 
Rejoice ! let glorious hope cast out despair, 

For all our joys and graces shall increase. 

Some holy men there be who fondly think 

That Paradise is but a place of rest — 
That there'll be nothing else to do but drink 

At pleasant founts in mansions of the blest. 
Ah ! heaven is a country of activity — 

It is one secret of its happiness — 
" There are no idlers there ; " yet all are free 

To follow what shall most enhance their bliss. 



SS HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



xm. 

'"ThEBE IS NOTHING HIDDEN THAT SHAEL NOT BE KNOWN."— 

Bible. 



There we shall learn the structure of the soul. 

There we can solve the mystery of the mind ; 
All elements shall be within control. 

All hidden things of nature we shall find. 
The mysteries of life we then shall know; 

The untimely loss of friends, and why the young 
Are taken from us ere the aged go, 

And why the heart with agony is wrung. 

And why the infant, pure and innocent. 

Must surfer, days and nights, death's agonies, 
While hardened wretches, oft on murder bent, 

May live and die all painless and with ease. 
And why the Christian, he of holy life, 

May surfer penury and grief; while he 
Who lives long years with every good at strife 

Mav revel in the midst of luxury. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 89 

There learn the secrets of creation ; how 

Jehovah holds His planets in their course, 
And known shall be — what is a secret now — 

The unsolved problem of magnetic force. 
The great atoning scheme, ordained on high, 

The birth of Christ, His deeds, why He was slain, 
How Jesus for a wretched world should die — 

In that illumined land shall be made plain. 

When lightning plays athwart the leaden sky, 

Amidst the tumult of a thunder-shower, 
Mankind do shudder as the storm goes by, 

The helpless victims of its subtle power. 
But there its mystery is understood, 

And though across the upper skies it dash, 
It shall not strike the noble and the good, 

'Twill be as harmless as the meteor's flash. 

All knowledge we in vain have striven for ; 

Science, that doth evade our weary powers, 
Beauty, that passed from earth forever, nor 

Shall love be wanting ; all shall then be ours. 
Clear to our eyes shall all the future be, 

Not long on earth shall her poor pilgrims plod ; 
There we shall understand the Trinity, 

And solve the wondrous mystery of God ! 



90 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 

Then hail ! celestial state ! O hail ! all hail 

Serenest land ! whose skies are ever bland, 
Where all the perfumed airs of heaven prevail, 

Full freighted with the songs of that bright band. 
O perfect world ! thou art not very far ; 

I gaze on thy surpassing brilliancy ; 
Thou art my morning and my evening star, 

And. till life's close I'll keep my eyes on thee ! 

This earth approaches the abyss of night — 

Portentous signs of some great change appear — 
And good and evil gather for the fight, 

And prophecy proclaims the end is near. 
Her cup of bitterness is running o'er, 

Her time of tribulation draweth nigh ; 
Soon shall her continents from shore to shore 

Be made to tremble from her agony ! 

But they who stand upon the Rock of Ages 

Shall then be safe — redeemed by love and grace 
Divine ; and though the storm terrific rages, 

It never shall disturb their resting-place. 
And though the earth from out its orbit fall, 

And naming down to realms of night be hurled, 
Ah ! then, triumphant at Jehovah's call, 

The good shall gather to his new-made world 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 9 L 

How endless to the idler seems the day, 

And to the convict slow it drags along ; 
But quick to the employed it flies away, 

The very hours do seem a constant song. 
How short the night to him whose sleep is sweet ! 

How brief from evening to the morrow morn ! 
He shuts his eyes, all labor is complete ; 

He opens them, another day is born. 

So, too, the Christian, when, his labor done — 

And always in his strife with evil brave — 
Now bids farewell to life's departing sun, 

And like the Saviour sinks into the grave. 
Though e'en a century the night of death, 

'Tis like the sleep of infancy to him, 
Repose is sweet, it passes like a breath ; 

He walks at morn among the cherubim. 

Soon shall arrive that glorious dawning-time ; 

I see its opening splendors in the east ; 
Methinks I hear the soul-entrancing chime 

Of angels calling to the heavenly feast. 
Be patient, soul, and do thy duty well, 

Be ready, for thy griefs shall soon be o'er ; 
Then free from sin and sorrow, thou shalt dwell 

In that delightful land for evermore. 



92 HEAVEN UNVEILED. 



XIV. 
''!>* my Father's house are many mansions." — Btblb. 



O mansions of the blest ! O peaceful homes ! 

That shine like gems amid a golden setting. 
When safe beneath your light-reflecting domes 

There's no unhappy thought, there's no regretting. 
Upon the hill-sides, in the vales of heaven, 

They glitter like a palace in the sun, 
While hues divine, above the primal seven, 

Do rest most lovingly upon each one. 

Within them shall be found all furniture 

A being sanctified could e'er desire — 
(For to the pure in heart all things are pure), 

All things a perfect judgment might admire, 
Shall there provided be. And I doubt not 

Sweet instruments we loved on earth to hear, 
(For melodies of time are unforgot) 

Shall add to our delight in that bright sphere. 



HEAVEN UNVEILED. 93 

Without, surrounding them, are gardens fair 

It were a constant joy to cultivate, 
While on the graceful trees hang fruits so rare 

And richer far than mortal ever ate. 
No worm is gnawing darkly at the roots, 

Defying oft the gardener's skill and art, 
No poisonous insect stings the tender fruits, 

Nor steals the fragrance from the rosebud's heart. 

The bowers of bliss are never-fading bowers, 

Though changing oft, their hues are ever bright ; 
They drink refreshment from celestial showers, 

They blossom every morn, and never blight. 
Secluded paths go winding 'mong the trees, 

And find perchance a river's pebbly side, 
Where softly wafted by the tuneful breeze 

The shining yachts like graceful swans do glide. 

More lovely trees than ever flourished here 

Extend their branches far to left and right, 
While many fountains throw their waters clear 

Among the boughs, and seem like liquid light. 
And trees of life in every garden stand, 

On every mount, and hill, by every river, 
They bloom and bear throughout that better land, 

And they who eat thereof shall live forever. 



91 HEAVEN UNTEILED. 

All trees, all flowers, all plants of priceless worth, 

That are beloved by virtue here below, 
Shall be transplanted to that blessed earth, 

And there again we shall behold them grow. 
And birds, that strive to make the morns of time 

Seem like a paradise of happiness, 
Shall be transported to that Eden clime, 

To join the seraphs in their songs of bliss. 

Whatever else that is of value here 

When vice and misery are swept away, 
Shall then be reproduced in yonder sphere, 

To bless the habitants of heaven alway. 
All memories of happy scenes shall live 

To multiply the pleasures of the soul, 
All dear affections be retained to give 

Supernal sweetness to the perfect whole. 

Oh, if the beauties of that land were known, 

And its attractions better understood, 
How few would seek for fame and wealth alone ! 

How many seek their own eternal good ! 
Then let the poet and the preacher dwell 

Upon its loveliness with speech and song, 
And all mankind shall love the story well, 

And learn to love the truth and shun the wrongs 



FFAYF.N UNVEILED. 95 



XV. 
"There shaw i know even as 1 am known."— Bible. 



Wnen far away, in foreign climes, we roam, 

When sad and lonely, how we long to fly 
Back swiftly to our own delightful home ! 

We urge the lagging hours to hasten by 
That we may meet the chosen one of youth, 

Who, midst her group of children, long doth wait 
Our coming. Oh, her innocence and truth 

Are like an angel's as she lingers late ! 

So we, with Christian patience, long to meet 

Dear ones who left our presence long ago ; 
We pine, we suffer for communion sweet 

'Twas ours to share when they were here below. 
That mother who was dear to us as life, 

Who was our guardian with unequalled love ; 
That child 5 that bride, that dear, devoted wife, 

Shall greet us in that chosen land above ! 



96 heavkk usvj&l&u 

What dazzling brightness rests upon their faces ! 

No eyes but saints' can look upon them now ; 
Behold them crowned with all angelic graces, 

Bright haloes bending o'er each sacred brow. 
All clad in beautiful apparel white 

As is the virgin snow of winter morn, 
Fair as Aurora in her car of light, 

When she proclaims a summer day is born. 

Their memories wander with us on our way. 

Their loving influence lingers as a light ; 
Their voices seem to chide us when w T e stray, 

Or hover, watching o'er us, in the night. 
We'll search for them with fond expectancy, 

When once admitted to that Eden home ; 
We'll meet them, too, when we from earth are free, 

We'll rest with them, no more from them to roam. 

Farewell, loved theme ! the minstrel's song is done ! 

When " heaven unveiled " his spirit eyes shall see, 
May he aojain resume the song begun, 

Inspired by heaven's unveiled sublimity ! 
And when he wins the harp, the crown, the palm, 

United with that vast unnumbered throng, 
We oft may wake one grand inspiring psalm, 

And fill the new-created world with song, 



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